Mind is Metaphor and Metaphor is Mind

There is no place to seek the mind,
It is like the footprints of the birds in the sky.

~ 'Zenrin Kushu'

Zenrin Kushu says that there is no place to seek mind – it is like the footprints of a bird overhead in the sky.  Yet right there in this metaphor Zenrin Kushu points us in the direction of mind.  Mind is metaphor and it is mirrored in the signs we see every day.  A bird leaves no footprints in the sky, but the snow goose’s passage overhead can be read as a sign of time’s passage, which leaves a strong impression on heart and mind.  Through metaphor mind can see sign of itself just about anywhere it looks - even in the tracks of the migrating geese passing overhead. 

Under the Big Dipper (take 2)

Over the last 5 years I have published more than 500 poems (including some translations) here on my lampoetry blog.  For the most part I like to write in the moment, which means that I usually don't revise or rework these poems very much before publishing them online.  But as a departure from my usual practice, I am currently preparing to publish a group of 30 or so of these poems as a stand-alone collection, which has given me an opportunity to do a little bit more clean-up and rewrite on some of them.  For me the challenge is how to keep the poems fresh and in the moment - which is the way I try to write - even while rewriting them long after the initial experience that gave rise to the poem in the first place.   This is one of the poems that I intend to include as part of the collection, which I have been reworking in the last few days.  You can read the original version here.

Through a thin scrim

Of stratus clouds
Each point of the Dipper
Briefly emerged last night
Opening up to a vista
Billions of light years hence
Helping me to levitate
And better appreciate
The very curvature of space

Once born aloft on those

High orbital currents

I was drawn

Higher still

Following the Polestar north

To a freedom absolute

My disembodied spirit soared

Soon dispersing among

The legion of stars

Like a handful of

Particulate matter

Then as the clouds

Regrouped overhead

I plummeted earthward

And soon found myself

 Grounded once again  

In corporal form convicted
That from now until
The Dipper inverts
In another couple of months
The earth is going to continue
Sending forth its blessings

In a multitude of ways 

Two Questions Posed to My Digital Self

How apt the simulation feels

Offered by the digital world

Even in primitive games

Like Sonic and Sim City
(to say nothing of Facebook
And LinkedIn)

The cardinal challenge

A player faces is
The familiar speed up

That confronts us 

Across all platforms
Stressed to the max

By the demands of our

Multiple screen names

Yet still I seek relief

Through more tweets and online poems
Thereby casting myself that much

Deeper down simulation’s hole

How many followers

Do you suppose

One must acquire

Before simulation

Yields to the real

Or would it be better
To forego more tweets
Pending the release of
Digital ego Version 2.0 

-->

Spring Sleep (a reverie in springtime by Bai Juyi)

Spring takes us right to the edge of a great awakening.  That, at least, is the way I read this poem by the Tang poet Bai Juyi.  The poet lays down in springtime in perfect repose and finds himself transported.  This poem is the record of his journey.

Freshly bathed

Loose of limb

Alone I lay down

In peaceful contentment

By virtue of the night

Deeply enfolded in rest

After day’s long commotion

Sleep finally attends me

Oh spring

Sometimes wan and chill

But also by warmth blessed

When dawn enters the casement

I’m slumbering still

Withdrawn far from

The world of humanity

Sunk in the pillow’s depth

To the immortal realm ascending

Where I arrive as only seems fit

No longer dreaming

But overwhelmed and

Of speech completely bereft

As in a moment of triumph

To stumble drunkenly

All desire ends up over matched

In the pure stream of Chan

What cry then awakens me

A passing shrike

Outside the window

That breaks the reverie

Rising to my family

Wife and children laughing

A lifetime of spring gaiety

Yet a vaster realm

Has slipped away

春眠

白居易

新浴肢体畅     独寝神魂安

况因夜深坐     遂成日高眠

春被薄亦暖     朝窗深更闲

却忘人间事     似得枕上仙

至适无梦想     大和难名言

全胜彭泽醉     欲敌曹溪禅

何物呼我觉     伯劳声关关

起来妻子笑     生计春茫然

-->