Humor

the warbler poops

on the slender

plum branch

Onitsura Uejima

————————————————

Heaven in a wild flower

And laughter

From the droppings of a bird

In all seriousness

I would like to be less serious

Even smile

When it is my car roof

Which needs washing

Yes, smile

And do not worry

About cutting down

The overhanging branches 

 

haiku mind

108 poems to

cultivate awareness 

& open your heart

is by Patricia Donegan

Interdependence

a heavy cart

rumbles by-

peonies tremble

Buson Yosa

————————————————

From the painting

Murder of crows at dawn

Am I given to believe that the thieves on this earth

And the solar systems beyond are interrelated

I remember the rockets fearsome take-off

I watched, in real-time, the moon landing

I tremble with those peonies

That such a thing is possible

Yet I am more than happy

To depend and co-depend

My cart is not so heavy

When laden with my brothers and sisters

 

haiku mind

108 poems to

cultivate awareness 

& open your heart

is by Patricia Donegan

Simplicity

this spring in my hut

there is nothing

there is everything

Sodo Yamaguchi

————————————————

White on white

Simplicity came to me

Embossed and embellished

Today the spring’s sun

Lightens my windows

Today the springs breeze

Asks me to go outside

We are in difficult times

Yes, there is nothing

But also there is everything

Hopes that eventually

New ways will begin

When months of compassion

Will bring their own rewards

Light upon light

Simplicity came to me

Refreshed and refurbished

haiku mind

108 poems to

cultivate awareness 

& open your heart

is by Patricia Donegan

Sorrow

this world of dew

is yes, a world of dew

and yet…

Issa Kobayashi

————————————————

What might have been

Without the loss

Without the grief

Without those years of life

My nephews

Dying at four years old

Playing in a house

Where no one expected…

Some recovered

Some didn’t and maybe never will

Even with the help of the rosary beads

And the early morning service

haiku mind

108 poems to

cultivate awareness 

& open your heart

is by Patricia Donegan

Awakening

  bush warbler -

        I rest my hands

in the wooden sink

Chigetsu-Ni

————————————————

I heard the crow

At just gone six o’clock

In the morning

Was I awake or waking

Was I awakened or re-awakening

To that day on the lake

There is a gap, a crack

In that space we share

On the lake or elsewhere

It is a comfortable

Habitual place

Where my awareness readily resides

Not a bird singing

Nor a crow crowing

But silence, silence slowly asking

haiku mind

108 poems to

cultivate awareness 

& open your heart

is by Patricia Donegan

Gratitude

remembering those gone

thankful to be here

pond of purple iris

Margaret Chula

————————————————

As I rise

As I retire

As I remember

Loss, lost

Lost, loss

In the midst of it all

Awareness

Gratefulness

For the lot

For the lot of it all

From which we are inseparable

Necessary to close the eyes

Necessary to open the eyes

Transformed by life itself

Breathe in

Breathe out

Smile

Imagine the lotus pond

Walk to the farm shop

Walk to the bread shop

Be filled

Be fulfilled

Go beyond

 

haiku mind

108 poems to

cultivate awareness 

& open your heart

is by Patricia Donegan

Illness And Emotions

        as my anger ebbs

the spring stars grow bright again

and the wind returns

Richard Wright

————————————————

Inside myself

Beside myself

Would it come to tears

Yet again the light came

I dressed

And chilled the pain

My neighbour's flag

Is calm today

After yesterday’s bluster

I write this in my home

But words would fall equally easy

In a Paris cafe

For I did travel

To European and Scandinavian cities

I did see much water, still and flowing

Though I have not yet seen

The Northern Lights au naturelle

So I do need to keep travelling 

haiku mind

108 poems to

cultivate awareness 

& open your heart

is by Patricia Donegan

Adversity

violets here and there

in the ruins

of the burnt house

Shokyu-Ni

————————————————

I don’t know

Nor maybe never will

Would it be preferable

For the house to burn to the ground

Or to be asked to leave

Once your man had gone

That banking, if that is all that is left

Where vegetation was cleared

Where smokestack fires were started

And so to the leaving, the grieving

Before another could, or would return

To plant a rise of flowers 

haiku mind

108 poems to

cultivate awareness 

& open your heart

is by Patricia Donegan

Forgetting the Self

rouged lips

forgotten—

clear spring water

Chiyo-Ni

———————————————————————

I too search

For the humanity of awareness

I too find my self

By going towards nothingness

And by reaching

The nothingness of awareness

I appreciate all and everything

Which my senses gift to me:

The sky becoming light

The bird taking flight

The flag flying vigorously

In the strong morning wind

I forget that

I have forgotten my self

But who am I

To say such a thing 

haiku mind

108 poems to

cultivate awareness 

& open your heart

is by Patricia Donegan

Transience

summer grasses—

all that remain

of warriors’ dream

Basho Matsuo

————————————————————-

The body’s pain is transient

And it has been so

For many years now

Walking on moorland trails

Or with one’s imagination

Alongside the Great Wall of China

In shoes where the toes

Are necessarily pinched and cramped

In the half-light of dawn

Yet not yet ever at war

Therefore all that may remain

Is the nothingness

Which exists

Between the warring factions

For do they not all aspire

To find the scents

Of spring

And summer’s grasses

Also to be waiting in the wings

For autumn and winter’s

Dark ladies of seduction

 

haiku mind

108 poems to

cultivate awareness 

& open your heart

is by Patricia Donegan

Compassion

don’t hit the fly—

he prays with his hands

and with his feet

Issa Kobayashi

——————————————-

We open the velux roof-light

So that the fly might escape

He has been trapped

In our warm writing space

Since who knows when

The writing room

Is also the meditation room

Where we compassionately convert

Anxiety and frustration

Into pace and harmony

The same room is also an adults playroom

Where clay is moulded by hands

Where feet tap to the music

Where once there was a stable

And now life itself is born

 

haiku mind

108 poems to

cultivate awareness 

& open your heart

is by Patricia Donegan

Honesty

I kill an ant

and realize my three children

were watching

Shuson Kato

------------------------------------------

Honestly

I do understand the need to kill

Even if upset is caused

I myself have a distant feeling of hurt

When, as a child

I witnessed kittens being drowned

Yet I thought nothing

Of trampling underfoot

Whatever lay on the forest floor

I could claim innocence or naivety

But I won't do that

For I know it not to be entirely honest

Because, in my early teenage years

I worked, actively participating

In a slaughterhouse

Should I have told you that

Or remained silent about my past

In which case where would lie the continuum line

Honestly, the children have all grown

Each retaining their own perspective, which

I hope they realise, I am, and have been watching 

Sky Mind

  To see Void vast infinite

look out the window

into the blue sky

Allen Ginsberg

----------------------------------------------------------------

If I cannot find the blue sky

If I cannot find the void

Then I will try to revisit the blue sky

Then I will try to revisit the void

Somewhere between the void and the blue sky

I will find the haiku

I will find the beat poet

Somewhere between the blue sky and the void

I will find the poem

I will find the poetry

If I cannot find the old words

The well-preserved words

Then I will write new words

The self-absorbed words

Somewhere between the dying and the death

I will find life in the haiku

I will find life in the beat poet

Somewhere between the death and the dying

I will find life in the poetry

I will find life in the poem

If I cannot find the death

If I cannot find the dying

Then I will try to find the words of the death

Then I will try to find the words of the dying

haiku mind

108 poems to

cultivate awareness 

& open your heart

is by Patricia Donegan

Pausing

pausing

halfway up the stair—

white chrysanthemums

Elizabeth Searle Lamb

------------------------------------------------------

The stairway place is now free

I sit right up to the Georgian window

A young woman wheels a wheelbarrow

Across the field, past the trees

It is not so silent as Bow

Doors bang, doors crash

I can hear conversations

But van Gogh’s blossom is still here

A young oriental woman

Climbs the stairs energetically

She smiles, says: Hi, hello

Before moving on to the door

This is the main thoroughfare

Between upstairs and downstairs

The wallpaper is rather grand

Exotic birds, with feathered tails 

Outside in the field

There are masses of molehills

Each peppered by pigeons

Another woman wheels her barrow

Though this time she moves

In the opposite direction

Before stopping, in the middle

Maybe for a Karma break

I tell you this as a momentary record

Fifteen minutes of a life

Quite possibly never to be revisited

With, or without the wheelbarrow 

haiku mind

108 poems to

cultivate awareness 

& open your heart

is by Patricia Donegan

Obedience, Stability, Conversion (The Artist’s Rule)

A stream of consciousness; definitions, and responses to the given meanings.

Obedience

I am at my best when the task is to obey myself; I do see the blue skies, the red sunrises, the yellow sunflowers, the sensual shadows of bob-cut hair. I obey the desire to find peace, calm, stillness, love. Also the urges for passion; sexuality and sensuality of past and present times. I walk through meadows and on beaches; I taste the salted sea and feel the Mistral blow through my hair.

Stability

Today I sit, listen to The Temple of the Heart. My meditation quietens what otherwise might be a restlessness. In these strangely quiet times I am more than a survivor, I take joy from the beauty of the moment of these moments. I am asked to stay at home, and I will stay at home, I am here now aren’t I.

Conversion

I am driven, always I have sought growth. First it was economic growth, to allow me to change and improve my circumstances. Next came technical and academic growth, to put myself on an equal or higher footing than those who I was aiming to compete with. Finally I have moved into personal and spiritual growth, to allow me to both explore myself and understand the various societies in which I already am, or would wish to be, embedded. This exploration confirms, and doubts, my faith in myself, in more or less equal measure.

The French Pantoum Poem

I am at my best when my task is to obey myself; I see 

    the blue skies, the red sunrises, the flowers

Also the urges for passion: sexuality and sensuality

    of past and present times

I am more than a survivor, I take joy from the beauty

    of the moment of the moments

I am asked to stay at home; I will stay at home, I am 

    here now aren’t I

Also the urges for passion: sexuality and sensuality

    of past and present times

To put myself on an equal or higher footing than

    those who I was aiming to compete with

I am asked to stay at home; I will stay at home, I am

    here now aren’t I

This exploration confirms, and doubts, my faith in

    myself in more or less equal measure

To put myself on an equal or higher footing than

    those who I was aiming to compete with

I am more than a survivor, I take joy from the beauty

    of the moment of the moments

This exploration confirms, and doubts, my faith in

    myself in more or less equal measure

I am at my best when my task is to obey myself; I see

    the blue skies, the red sunrises, the flowers

Available at Amazon

Christopher's Website
for his Collected Works

Methods For Compatibility

I am skirting too close to religion

As a non-believer

I know that I put myself at risk

For there is much of love and beauty

On their journeys and celebrated paths

Also in their ceremonies, churches and cathedrals

I could become enchanted

Some would say that I already am

Yet always I try to keep some distance

Even now, holding hands in thanks

For this day just joyously lived through

Or the day ahead inviting us to come on in

What is it, and why do I choose

To set myself apart from the crowd

However much that crowd might be dwindling

I do walk in to pray, similar but different to others

I am happy with the shake and swing of the incense

I care for the call and response of Benedictine chant

I have slept and eaten within the monastic walls

I read the stories of those they have favoured

And I do fear for their disappearance, sincerely

So I am pleased to help, in a small way, hoping that

My donations go towards their continuity of purpose

As, at the same time, I lessen my exposure to risk

 

Available at Amazon

Christopher's Website
for his Collected Works

Rogue Or No

I have adopted words from the canon of religion

Into the peace of my non-religious world

Faith, and grace, and prayer, and love

Are to be found liberally scattered

Just as the vegetarian chooses to name her food

Burger, sausage roll, chicken on a stick

Then I choose to name my non-religious thoughts

In the existence of writing man, or of religious man

Today I sent a photograph to my youngest son

And his girlfriend; also to my grandchildren

I used the words Happy Easter without qualm

Or fear, of any kind of time-based retribution

For it is not up to me, nor you either

To determine whether  others should be starved

Of the beautiful words from the past of religion

With its immense breadth and depth of storytelling

I have no objection to the cathedrals

Or the icons, or the rituals; indeed

I have attended and I have been moved

By the humanity shared in the gatherings

My difficulty arrives when the words are turned

Into instructions, often with violence adopted

As a way to ensure that the followers are kept

On pathways, determined by heaven knows who

Available at Amazon

Christopher's Website
for his Collected Works