Welcome to the age
of information
when we are blessed
by wireless waves
passing through
our body/minds
and awakened
by the electronic chemistry
of the computer,
the television,
the radio,
all the little
electrical gizmos
which are everywhere,
so I wonder
what is this doing
to our brains?
so this is not a forest anymore
and it's no wonder
that we can't quieten our minds
no matter how we try
so why don't we just
learn to love
the new electromagnetic ocean
and float on our sea
of meaningless thoughts?

At a Zen temple
I chanted
and blended in
with the Sangha
as though
we were all one being
with one voice,
so another time
I decided
to stand out
as an individual
and chant in my own way,
and then another time
I couldn't keep up
with the group singing
and was kind of
left out of it,
so the world is
one world
with one heart
and one love
as I just read
in another poem,
but this brings up
love and fear
as some think
about the human family
while others think about
One World Government,
and some think
about imagining one world
at peace
while others think about
Business Globalization,
so I think
this is life
and we should embrace
whatever comes
because whatever
will come
and I try
to approach
this one world
with fearlessness
and equanimity.

Here in this rich suburb
of a city which is perceived
as dangerous,
the squirrels run
right in front
of the speeding cars,
and some of the squirrels
stop in time, turn around,
and go back to the safe side,
but some keep running
and get squashed by the speeding cars.
So one day
I was driving
and a squirrel
ran under my car
and as I drove on
I looked back
to see him writhing in agony,
so the next car
put him out of his misery
by running over his dying body.
I have not gotten past
being a squirrel myself
facing such an end.

So the Bodhisattva said
"Emptiness is none other than form,
form is none other than emptiness"
and I have perceived
this emptiness
through years of Yoga and Zen
but the real understanding
which I have gained
about what emptiness is
and how to perceive it
can be done
in a blink,
because the greatest expression
of emptiness
is to look
at what is in front of you
at this very moment,
because at that point
the emptiness of it
is so empty
that is doesn't exist,
this space between atoms
is so empty
that you can't even perceive it,
so there,
you are now
an enlightened Buddha
with a knowledge
and perception
of the Awesome Emptiness
Of Everything.
Congratulations!

I became celibate
quite a few years ago
only in part
because of religious reasons
but probably mostly because
the *** was so bad
so after I became celibate
and after much meditation
I experienced a new kind of ***
for me,
these internal *******
from kundalini flow
and to me,
it is better than regular ***
and I have it
much more frequently
like entire days of ******
so that sometimes
I think that I am not celibate
but actually
have become
a bit too promiscuous.

"Practice
a deep, warm flowing
give and take
of the radiation
to the exclusion
of all"
is a dharma
which has been growing
inside of me
for a few days
that I am ready
to file away
so I am giving
it to you
in the hope
that it helps.

Young people
really feel
a lot of pain
as do older people
who have more time
to get used to it,
and I have found
that I always hurt
and the best I can do
is to sit in a chair,
even sleep
is painful
and I think
that everybody else
and even maybe
everything else
has this kind of pain,
like the fly
in the basement
probably has
arthritis,
and a Zen master
once said
"Even if you get
to the very bottom
of Zen meditation,
there is still
suffering"
so oh well,
no pain,
no something or other.

I give to charity.
Some people out there need food.
The charities send me messages begging for money.
The messages seem to be getting more extravagantly made.
It seems to me that the charities are getter richer.
They are begging more and more.
I give to charity.
Sometimes I don't.

Sometimes
when I do something
a little less
than good,
the mind
bugs me
with a guilt trip
to ****** land,
and I know
that morality
is a cornerstone
of Buddhism
which I subscribe to,
but the moral, virtuous, pure way
bothers me
as does the chemistry
of the mechanism of the mind
which gives me
this crap.

I have studied
my head
for my whole life,
and I've read
a little psychology
and a lot of religion
and my head
has been studied
by doctors,
so thoughts
interest me
and it seems
like there
is this voice
in there
who is something
that I could call me
and these other
voices
who I could call
voices
or thoughts
or whatever,
but, you know,
it dawned on me
that all it is
is the action
of electromagnetic biochemistry
in my head,
and I think
oh...
so that's what
I've gotten
so crazy about
for all these years.

The nose is followed
because one can hear
its silent knowledge.

Miles Davis was cool
and sort of invented the word
so when I was young
we all said this word
and I found out
that the next generation
says this word too
so I was angry today
because I thought
I was pathetic
when it dawned on me
that I was a cool guy
just like all my old friends
were cool guys and girls
so I thought about it
and decided that everybody
in my life
was pretty cool
so I thought
"I don't know if everybody
has the Buddha nature
like they say,
but I do know
that everybody
has the cool nature
to some degree"
so I felt better.

So my elderly mother
who I am taking care of
was in bed
for a month or so
and she yelled to me
that she had to go
to the bathroom
but she couldn't stand up
so she told me to change
her protective underwear
and when I did
I saw that she
was covered with black diarrhea
so I cleaned it off
as best I could
and she tried to stand up
but collapsed on the floor
so I called 911
and the men came
and said
"Internal bleeding".

So I'm sitting here
in my space
and it really is space,
outer space,
and if I listen to it,
it sounds
like the spaceship
which it is,
and since
I have unplugged
the television
and turned off
the radio,
I can hear
the unusual sounds
of this unearthly, earthly spaceship
humming,
and when I listen closely
I can hear
the hum and high-pitched hiss
of my brain
and nervous system,
as I go traveling outward
into the vastness
of the universe
in this spaceship
called my house
in the suburbs.

Buddha talked about
the elephant
who travels alone
without master or friend
as company
and a friend of mine
asked me
to be his friend
but I said
I was an elephant
so he looked disheartened
and I knew what a foolish elephant
I was.

Two of my Zen friends
who, at the time,
I thought were some kind
of Zen enemies,
seemed to condemn me
to a soap opera
of eternal cookies
and the sound of lawnmowers,
and it took me
forty-some years
to understand this koan,
and the suburban heaven
that I was condemned to,
where instead of a life
in the forest
with snakes and mosquitos,
or a life in the city
with rats and roaches,
I was given
a life in this quiet, rich suburb
with an air-conditioned summer
and a toasty warm winter,
so that surrealistic understanding
of cookie and lawnmower hell,
turned into everyday Nirvana.

When I officially became a Zen Buddhist
I took the precepts
and promised to practice
being an energetic Buddhist
to which I replied, "Sort of..."
and everybody laughed
but now
about seven years later
I have become energetic
and I really can't believe it myself.

So my hair
was getting
really long
so I went
to the barber shop
with the lady barbers
and told her
to give me
a businessman's haircut
which I used to call
normal style
and she cut off
most of my hair
and shaved my neck
with a straight razor
and I thought
that it was great
but now
my hair stands up
in the back
so I look like
Alfalfa
(if you remember him)
without the grease.

So, I have been hacked
completely,
by somebody
and so I think,
"Well, I don't have
anything in here,
so, who cares?"
and since,
I am always looking
for a bigger audience
to read my stuff,
I think,
"Great, I've got some
wonderful criminal
or something
reading me!"
so I am completely hacked
right down to the source,
so I think,
"Excellent!",
but I might
go get my computer fixed
because the other people
in my little network
probably don't like him,
so, we'll see
maybe I'll just say,
"Honk it!
I'm in love!"

Living in my indigo house
sitting on a straight chair
I find the essential word
which turns me into
a suburban Hawaiian
here in snowy Michigan
and the word that appears
in my indigo mind
means love, compassion and mercy
as well as hello
and as well as goodbye.
Aloha!

Green candle     on the altar
for the Buddha,      Dharma, Sangha

Flickering     the fire shines
golden light rays     on brown table

Candle glows     bought at hardware store
and on sale!     so that's life

At the Buddha's birthday celebration,
I held my plateful of food
and sat down
at a table
with an odd man,
who said he was an engineer,
and that he
was looking around
for chicks,
so the Zen priest
pointed out
that he had
an enormous pile
of food
on two plates
in front of him,
and then
a young woman
sat down
at our table,
and he proceeded
to hit on her
by trying to impress her
with his intelligence,
and I wondered
if she might have been thinking,
"Who's this *******?",
but I kept my mouth shut.

Delusion!

Pushing my mother
in her wheelchair
through the forest
in the park,
I see my sister
picking up a leaf
and handing it
to mom
who asks
what should I do with it
and I suggest
using it
as a bookmark
for her daily words
and so I put the red leaf
in her pocket
and we roll on.

I used to think
that freedom
was found
in doing whatever you wanted to
and the crazier the better
but now I believe
that true freedom
is found in self-control
but don't leave
the craziness out
completely!

Spontaneity slowly wringing happy tie in superly
spand of lilac slingly hyperbolic in siatic spurious

Her is a lamp of antique
a golden legs of strings

Barbara was studied
as a woman

My childhood bicycle
was like a Cadillac
with fins and gizmos
but my brother suggested
we strip it down.
My brother tried
to fix a red corvette
in our family's garage.
The computer has replaced
my childhood bicycle
with its journeys
to cyberspace.
The 5 year old car
of my mother's
which I drive
is orange and waits
in our family's garage.

I was getting
a pillow
for my mom
who is in hospice care
and as I went
I bashed my knee
on a piece of furniture
so hard
that I had to sit down
and moan in pain
and later
it became red
and probably will
develop a bad bruise
so my practices,
many of which
I do standing up
and dancing,
had to be changed,
so I tried the new way
of doing them
sitting on a chair
and to my surprise
I thought they were better,
so once again
it has been shown to me
that accidents
and unintentional occurances
sometimes
are the best things
that can happen.

The war
between the lilies
and the Jack Daniels
is mounting
with death and life
in a struggle
and the lilies
are poisoning me
with beauty
as I drink
the Jack Daniels
to end in misery
so the struggle
continues.

I will be doing
two new paintings
so in order
to prepare
I put my green bags
(which are red and blue)
into the car
and drove to the store
which sells a lot
most of which
is from China
and I know
that is not good
for our carbon footprint
but I like China
so I bought
two Chinese frames
and on the way home
I picked up two more
green bags
(which this time are green)
so I have been helping
the troubled economy
with my little
shopping deal.

I wear crystals
and a large man
said he liked my rock
then he told me
that it was sedimentary
and millions of years old
so I wondered
if I was wearing it
or it was wearing me.

She had to put
her dog down,
the dog that she took
on many walks
on many mornings,
the dog who was so pretty
that people always commented,
and when she had put
her dog down,
she felt like a killer
and our hearts
were torn.

This morning,
I woke up feeling bitter
about life
and it was
a bad chemistry,
so, later,
since my mind
is pointed
toward love,
it changed
and the chemistry got
a little better,
but this morning
I decided
that the best chemistry
is the chemistry of indifference,
but not the kind
of indifference that rejects,
like you usually know about,
but the kind of indifference
that accepts,
like "It is what it is
and that's what it is",
so this chemistry
was the best I could muster,
so, I'm sitting here now,
listening to the birds
and feeling a bit indifferent
to life in general
but in a good way,
like OK,
so this is the way it is,
so ok.

I was flying high.
Filled with love.
I got hungry.
I ate a dill pickle, some olives and some cheese.
I decided to take my nutrient pills.
I swallowed them.
Now, I am lower than a sleeping dog.
Oh well, Buddha said that nutrients cause suffering.

The in-breath is creation
and the out-breath is destruction
and so it goes like a blinking eye
in a circle
like a kid building something
and then wrecking it
and it's not vicious
it's just a circle
like the seasons
so don't get upset
with nature.

I recently
got into
a little kundalini yoga
and joined
the Zen group
on Facebook,
and it was like
being plugged into
an electric socket.
I didn't sing
the body electric,
I freaked out.
Panic, anxiety,
and mania ensued.
This ****
can be dangerous.
I saw my doctor
and he gave me
more medicine.
Now, I'm fine.
Whew.

They say
that a beginner
has many options,
but an expert
has one or none,
so I joined
a new website
where there
are thousands
of great photographers,
so, inspired by them
I decided
to enroll in Buddha's self-help school
of beginning photography,
and actually
I have never liked
photography as an art form,
until I began studying
and now I am obsessed
by the actions
of my little Kodak
that gives me
such amazing
bad photography.

Siaba trito
lost the ****** woman
who sat on his apple
with her face resister
that sought another person
to write with pajamas
on his purple sweater
that had no points
instead of purpose
to drive a monkey
where deer ride tractors
in heaven's wonder.

I get so ******
on my religious practices
that I have realized
that religion
really is
the ****** of the people
but it strikes me
that that's just
what I want
is some kind of natural ******
to make me enlightened.

I woke up
with the down energy
and I was miserable
so I got down
in the basement
with my five animal dance
which got me up
after I had been up
for awhile.

So, lighting up a cigarette
I expound on a blinking eye
that goes on and off
like this computer
and everything.

So, the last happy smoker
takes another puff
from his incense
that is considered weaponry
by many
and delights in the defiling
and healing power of smoke.

A squirrel was seen.
Sprawled out on the sidewalk.
Still living.
Muscular, to be able to run up trees.
I was surprised.
Squirrels impress me.
Most think they are funny.
I have not gotten beyond the death of a squirrel.
Watch them run on the wires.
Filled with vital energy.
I wonder if long ago, I was one.
Teeth.

I have a peculiar and eccentric style.
I am a peculiar and eccentric person.
My life is peculiar and eccentric.
I have always admired peculiar and eccentric artists.
I haven't seen a movie in a theater for twenty-one years.

The anti-way is well portrayed
on the cathode ray tube
plugged into millions
who let it pour
into their tired brains,
so for awhile,
like two minutes,
I turn it on
to find out
what the hell
it thinks,
and there are murders
and happy salesman
and bigfoot
and pictures of Jamaica
so I say,
"Oh...that's what
it's about..."

I believe
in attachments
like sitting in a chair
smoking and drinking
while thinking about stuff
and I believe
in sleep and laziness
and I don't particularly
like purity or wholesomeness
and I don't even
exactly practice
moderation
so I guess that makes me
an anti-zen buddhist zen buddhist
and I am a good Buddhist
even if maybe I'm not.

I used to think
I was a miner
looking for something
   golden
in my head.
I was trapped.
Later,
I was rescued
by myself
with some help.
I breathe freely now.

While shopping
for a pair of pants
the music
was playing
songs which I thought
were designed
to prevent
shoplifting.

We're all homesick
for the black hole
where we once lived
before the big bang
but now we are on
this spaceship planet
exploring infinity
for eternity.

I just watched a short film
of flowers
in fast motion
and I decided
that flowers try, too,
and that they struggle
and toil
like we all do,
and I like to reconsider
what the holy men
have said,
because maybe
they were wrong
and just saying things
like we all do,
and I like to doubt
the holy books
because they might be wrong
and just saying
old, handed-down garbage
or maybe not,
so I reconsidered the lilies
and found that they do indeed
toil and spin,
and they do dress nicely.

There is this thing
called losing your mind
that everybody
seems to want to do
and there is this thing
called losing your mind
that nobody
seems to want to do.