Here's how I think
that life goes -
the first moment
of conception
is like a cycle
of the four seasons,
spring, summer, autumn, winter,
or like the cycle
of the moon,
or like the cycle
of a wave,
attack, sustain, decay, release,
or like the cycle
of the turning earth
in a day,
so this moment
cycles and recycles
and grows and grows
into an entire life,
and I think
the whole universe
operates this way,
of course
I could be wrong.

The form of Sijo is basically the following -

3     4
4     4

3     4
4     4

3     5
4     3

Where each number represents a phrase of syllables, with a line break in between (space over about five spaces). In three stanzas of two lines each, the first stanza is an introduction, the second stanza is a development of the first, and the last stanza is a conclusion. See some of the examples of Sijo inside.

The computer hums
while the mind hisses
with the words
being only the top
of the vastness
of the full unseen mind
which whirs
with activity
of an awake dream
which states
quite frankly
what is already known
and unknown.

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.

Go to a bookstore
and look at the poetry
to see how many books
by living poets
are for sale.

I was sitting
outside of my house
years ago,
thinking about a sad song called,
"Can't Find My Way Home",
and I felt homesick
even though
I was sitting there
at home,
so here are some ideas
about home,
and the first is
that home is the place
where I feel I belong,
so that would be
this present moment
right here, right now,
but I usually don't exactly
feel like I belong here now,
so another idea
is that home is where
I am happy all the time,
with peace and love in my life
all the time,
but I usually don't exactly
feel like that is the case at all,
so another idea
is that home is where
I am rich and successful
but I'm certainly not that
and probably won't be
in this lifetime,
so I have another idea
that home is being
with the family,
but I don't exactly
feel quite at home
with the family,
so another idea
is that home is this body/mind
that I live in,
but that place
doesn't feel quite like home either,
so I have this idea
that Buddha was at home
when he realized full enlightenment,
but I don't know,
and I probably won't get there
any time soon,
so I have come
to the conclusion
that there is no home,
like we think of home,
anywhere,
so I guess that makes me
homeless,
like Buddha suggested
that I be.

In the basement,
I dance
the five animals
every day,
and one
of the animals
is a bird,
so I become
something like
a grackle
with its purple head,
and soar
in the mind
as I am walking
in a figure eight
around a small area
with my arms outstretched,
and this exercise
is an trip to wonder land
for me
and it's good
for the old ticker
which could use
some help.

It seems to me
that the state of existence
is the state of
sick/well
and that suffering
is forever
and that health
is forever
and that there is no escape
from either.
The trick is to be content
by accepting both, simultaneously.

So, the window
is open
and a lawnmower
is speaking
in mechanical tongues
as the weather
in early spring
is warm and nice
and the birds
are, you know,
well, birds,
and a friend told me
a long time ago
that Detroit
could be completely underwater
in the future,
so even though that bothers me

I guess it's OK.

I signed up
as a young hippie
on the side
of the losers
in the world,
the poor, the homeless,
the refugees, the starving,
the mentally ill, the physically disabled,
and so on
so that is where
I am,
on the losing side
here with us poor poets
who work long hours
for nothing,
but I figured it out
that even though
I am depressed
about my place in life,
this place is what I love
and the people
like me
are the people
that my heart goes out to,
so I'll try
to cheer up
because even if all is lost,
all is not lost.

I used to do
a little bit
of drugs,
and even though
they didn't wreck me
too bad,
I gave them up,
but I like
to get high,
so I have invented
the imaginary drug experience,
and what you do
is to say the name
of the drug, inside,
as you breathe out,
and then,
holding your nostrils open,
you forcefully inhale, fast,
in other words,
snort,
the air,
and my notion is
that the body/mind
will understand
that you want this drug
and it will produce
an endorphine,
(brain chemical),
which is like a mild form
of that drug,
and then,
you get a little bit high,
but it's awfully subtle,
so you have to be aware,
and there
you have it,
safe dope,
and you can't
get busted.

This do to able.
Not are people
many. It mean
and you love
really I, say
and mirror
the in yourself.
Look you can!
Yourself about good
feel to need
you. Esteem-self
relatively have to.
Need you,
life of out,
want you,
what get and?

Important notice
from the insurance
company
for new
beneficiaries.
After you are enrolled,
you have a limited time
to secure additional
coverage
you may need
without answering
health questions
or taking
a physical exam.
Look inside
to find out more
about your options
and limitations
during this
open enrollment
period.

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.

Buddha taught
about "mere words"
since words
in one sense
are like numbers
without any real meaning
like they're all Greek to me
but I think
being something
like a poet
that words
can be powerful
with the capability
of transforming lives
by the process
of the links
that occur
in the mind,
connecting a myriad
of connotations
and denotation
that set off
a potent brain chemistry
that can make the difference
between a kind of sanity
and a kind of madness.

So on the fourth of July
I decided to flush Zen
down the toilet,
to give it up
because it has become
such a heavy weight
and when I did
everything
seemed like nothing
more substantial
than water draining
through my fingers
so that was how
I found Zen again.

If you do not yet have
a broken record in your
mantra as part of your
daily life, you might consider
personal and spiritual
ear training from a college.
Development, you should
go to music school, so that
not only is the chanting
of music in your head A,
of sacred mantras a
kind of annoying music,
beautiful and harmonious,
like doe a deer, a female
practice, but one that
can leak out all over.  

Song 2
But what is Dharani? It is
an inner song, that I sing,
a sacred sound sequence
that I got from the heart,
in Sanskrit that, from a
different point of view is
yogic perspective, can help
when  am in pain, or
to align us with the
mind to the body, higher
frequencies of the universe,
and can help with trouble,
and prepare us, in many ways,
for whatever life gives
for advanced spiritual
everyday life.

Here is a way
to instant relative nirvana -
ask yourself
if you're comfortable,
ask yourself
if you're satisfied,
ask yourself
if life is satisfactory,
if the answer is yes,
proceed -
obviously you are awake
obviously you are free
(even if you are in jail
your body/mind is free)
so now,
here in the moment
look at what's in front of you -
Presto!
Nirvana!
(if you want to perceive
the nirvana element,
ask the seer
to see
the seer
and maybe
you'll see
the emptiness).

I went on an errand,
shopping, driving on
the freeway, with
construction. A salon
was passed. My guidance
is a professional, who
is into travel while
singing throughout,
with the music quiet.
It was rehearsed earlier.
My intuition is flawed.

You are reading this.
You are invisible to me.
I am invisible to you.
I was at an art show.
A large group of people were there.
I saw their bodies, but there were no names attached.
No stories of their lives.
No anecdotes about them.
Even though I could see them, they were invisible.
But, there is something visible about all of us.
We know each other well.

They seem to me
to have to live
in a public nightmare
of being known
even though nobody knows
and it seems to me
to be a surrealistic hell
of flashing lights
and strangers
who know everything
without knowing anything
and people want
a piece of them
and people even
take potshots at them
so us little people
should probably be happy
that we're not famous.

All improve, but it
elevates awareness,
intimadation develop,
intimadation helping,
always author contracts.
Excellent elevates
all more. Help excellent,
changes preceded,
preceded next helping,
evolve preceded.

We are all searching
and looking
and leaning
and grasping
for it,
and we don't know
what it is
but we are all
searching and looking
and leaning and grasping
for it,
so I found it,
even if I don't know it,
but it is nothing
and doesn't exist,
but I think
that we all have it,
we all have it
right now,
and we have been looking
for it,
but we just didn't know
that we had it
all along,
so relax
and enjoy it,
we've got it,
so that's all.

It seems to be lack
of trust in the universe,
the signless, nothing.

Yellow,
making bubbles
in the water,
and dripping
sending out ripples.

This is
a part
of life.

Don't always
flush it.

I turn on one electric light
usually
to see in the dark
and no electric lights
in the daytime,
because I try
not to waste energy
and natural resources,
because they are precious,
so I recycle
as much as I can
and I take cloth bags
to stores,
and I turn off
and even unplug
almost everything
in the house,
and I use
as little water
as I can,
but, you know,
sometimes
I just say ***** it
to conservation
and throw stuff away,
because it's not good
to get stuck
in some ****
philosophy.

The first thought
is the enlightened one
and the second thought
is the Buddha one
and both are bothered
by doubts
so I don't know
which thought to follow

And Bob Dylan sang
"Don't think twice,
It's allright"
but I've been puzzled
about that advice
all my life

so it strikes me
that where I am
is where I am
and what I do
is what I do

it's probably
just perfect
that way
but as a Zen master
said,
"There's still
some room
for improvement!"

This computer acts
as a drug to me
and so does the TV
and my vitamins
and my exercises
and my cigarettes
and my posture
and the light in this room
and the roomscape of sound
so the electro-magnetic bio-chemical man
is constantly ******.

Here are some more
empty words
that don't help
because we don't
actually need
any help.

The future will be just like this
except different
like it always has been.

It's my birthday
and I'm fifty-nine
and I heard a song
by a paranoia producing
songwriter
who said that
it was too late
and this message
seems to come through
to us often
so I know I shouldn't say never
but I'm saying it
and it's not too late
and even if I die right now,
death is no end to life
and even then
it's not too late
and then comes the question,
"Too late for what?"
"This?".

One in
the morning
and my
nervous system
is working
as I notice
by the hissing sound
in my ears.

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.

There is
an awful war
going on
between the good
and the bad
so I've decided
to **** them both.

So, I was sitting
in the basement,
when I decided
what I already knew,
and that is
that I believe
in kindness,
and kindness
to all being
and beings,
even the Evil One,
Mara,
so, as I thought that,
a dark shadow
appeared next to me,
and I said,
"How are you doing, Mara?"
and he replied,
in my mind,
"I will crush your head,
and defile you,
and defeat you,
and throw you into the pit!",
so, as my head
was tightening,
I thought,
"Well...ok...if you have to...",
so I had a vision
of myself in a pit,
and I thought,
"Well, I'll still be kind",
so, Mara said
in a voice in my head,
"My job is to scare people...
your job is to be kind..."
so, I thought back
to him,
"OK...it's a deal!"
then I went upstairs
to this computer
and burned a CD
to give to a friend.
So, all is well,
here...now.

The Zen master
addressed the gathered group
and said,
"You don't know anything."
and one of the students replied,
"What do you mean,
we don't know anything?"
and the master
was silent
and appeared puzzled,
so I now know
what the master means
by not knowing anything,
because at any given moment
I don't know a thing
and knowing for sure
is so difficult
that nobody probably does
know anything,
but I can also understand
the student's response,
because of course,
I know all about
this here and now,
or so I think,
so like me right now,
the master was silent
and puzzled,
because probably
he knew nothing.

So I was doing
my Kuan Yin practice
when I bowed
to a white sculpture
of her
and decided to listen
so she thought to me
"I will tell you
anything you want
to know...
you just have to ask."
so I pondered awhile
and thought,
"What is it?"
and she thought back,
"It is what you think it is."
so I asked,
"Who am I?"
and she thought back,
"You are what you think you are."
so I thought,
"I love you, Kuan Yin."
and blew out the candle.

Relax
the body,
lose the pain.

I told a young woman that life was a party, as a young man.
We were at a party.
That was obviously why I said it!

When I get
in this mood
where I think
"I don't want
to do anything"
all I can seem to do
is stand up
and sit down
while smoking.

I believe
that life
as it is
is the one true refuge
the one true vehicle
and that impermanence
is not about death
but about transformation
change and metamorphosis
so
no death
no birth
life-only!

Red beauty.
Line war, wet, naked valley.

Context.

Haiku pub open, lost.
Used love vital.
Screaming life's critique:

Duality!

Colours high...far...hidden.

The heat bugs of July
have stopped their
music of white noise
for a moment
as the humming
of the computer
reminds this man
sitting here
to listen.

Why do poets
seem to know me
when they don't know me
at all
and so we say
how much we love
each other
but we're looking
at a computer
and I love
the computer
and I love you
I guess
but I don't know
who the heck you are.

Mom and I
both live here
and I fixed her
bacon and eggs.

The word
from the media
is to live big
but I think
I like living small
without the worry
about success
and fame
and without
the trouble
that money brings.

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.

I declared that yesterday
was The International
Appreciation Of Daily Life
Day
and when I woke up today
I knew that every day
should be that too.

The thoughts have a tendency
to go down like water
to their low point
and that is when
it is time to refresh the mind
with a little practice
of some kind
like meditation.

I put on the tea kettle
and turn up the stove
put a tea bag into my cup
and begin walking
in a diagonal direction
with each step
being with each breath
and my hands over
my heart
with my thumb inside
the right hand
so I take a slow walk
and come back to the stove
and the water is ready
then into the cup
goes the water
so then I walk again
twice this time
and the tea is done.
I have given up
the powerful way
of Zen
for the way of Shambhala
where we breathe easy.