Others seem happy,
Youth— beauty caged alone,
Torment of mirrors.

Where reverent suns are red,
I inhale a golden sun and hold the moon,
Floating in a cosmic centered bath

Dancing in ablaze of space,
Communing with sentient splitting stars
naked I have roamed among
ravenous red fire flowers in bloom,
lips, juicy sweet ardent wet fervours

Earth spinning, my dance be illusion,
To his kisses I forever weaved magenta trees,
Breathing earth’s day of vermillion,
Chasing samsaric robes, torn in
confusion, I grasp egolessness,
How I flickered black and white to and fro

The immortal swordless in his arms,
the awakened watcher in sky robes,
Yearning for star fields,
yet poisoned by the darkest snake,
Whispering, whispering,
his hallow raptures of

“Love”

─ © Arnay Rumens / A Sol Poet Ju. 112014

I have been the Buddha
heavy-lidded, bald
refusing the world
access to me

I have been the Buddha
leaning against the tree
of wisdom and duty
and all-surrounding beauty

I have been the Buddha
rejecting the body of me
rejecting the body of you
nearing the body of all

I have been the Buddha
re-entering where I left
tumbling around in a clothes-dryer
ridding myself of samsaric moisture

I have been the Buddha
bereft of kith and kin and kind
soaking my toes
in the enjoyment of nothing



Bonaventure Saptel

The Evolution of Sophomores

Poor sophomores like polliwogs within
Their small Samsaric Sea do swim about
And seemingly without purpose or point
Startled by shifting shadows or loud noises

But polliwogs in time absorb their tails
Then grow their legs, and hop ashore to eat
Mosquitoes, moths, and flies and dragonflies;
Sophomores acquire their driving licenses

And seemingly without purpose or point
Do drive about their small Samsaric Sea

The purest form of grace I know
Is shown in vows forged long ago;
A bodhi mind aspired to save
All beings caught within the wave
Of grim Samsara's round of birth --
A mighty Vow that shook the earth;
While from the heavens flowers fell,
That fluttered to the deepest hell,
And dharma fragrance even there
Perfumed the dark and hopeless air;
Then devas, men and hungry ghosts --
In every realm these countless hosts --
Saw piercing their Samsaric night
A dazzling and unhindered Light,
And heard these words: 'Would you receive
Rebirth in Bliss? Then just believe
In My resolve and power to save
All beings from Samsara's wave,
And say My Name, My Name alone,
That at the end, when life is done,
I shall appear before your eyes;
(You have My word that your demise
Pertains to but conditioned things);
Your bodhi mind shall rise on wings
To Sukhavati's blissful shore,
And Namo Amitabha ever more!'