Short Poems

SHORT POEMS WRITTEN TO INTRODUCE CHAPTERS
FROM LIGHT ON ENLIGHTENMENT

We know little of who we are; but our self
is rooted in measurement,
strange and thought driven.
limited by circumstances, but refusing to admit;
functional, irregular; a clamour of experiences.

in seeing -
what utter joy!
the small mind becomes transparent, empty,
without foundation.

this sudden glimpse of invoked beatitude
like the lost chord of a sweet anthem
this unhindered discovery that pervades,
where expansion dominates passages of time,
and self is fleeced of misperceptions.

all beings love the warmth of happiness,
like sunlight to a field's sunflower,
for inside this depth, peace is found.
in meditation of a fragrant hour.

what sweet depths echo in this life!
that lead to discovery, yet never far away,
for where can we go but to humble origins?
nothing offers itself to be attended to
yet there abides this infinite expanse.

the knower and the known bear no susbtance,
entangled perceptions for the self,
the worldly and spiritual loses its tone
when the knower no longer pushes forward
onto the fictions of the known.
unfixed, unformed unmarked,
emptiness makes all things possible,

this unwoven realm, not far, not near,
nor in between, not above, not below
not revealed, not hidden,
not solid, not insubstantial,
not words, not silence.
before which this ego collapses.

when this force of ego moves upon the present,
I am blinded to the consequences,
to the slavery of its movement,
that takes no account of what abides
in receptivity all around.

fixed thoughts are relentlessly punishing,
so why hide behind our loutish intellect?
putting aside this cruel pretence
of civilisation amid our broken toys
let us pay respect to this awareness.
we have hurt, harmed and fought
each other, these troubles beat,
until clarity pervades our heated cells,
we live upon the cry of pain and grief.

let one purpose confess to move our hearts,
that is to expand this vista of life,
to shake off the hold of conformity
so insight thrust their way through this mind

dwell on your frustrations
in this space of past trials,
what you are doing with such intentions
expresses an endearing futility,
like the wind battering the sea.

generalities and specifics, ideas and claims,
uprising of names and forms, inconsequential time,
limp conventional world, inconsistent present,
multiple outcomings, yet signalling that