Some "Buddhist" Poems for National Poetry Day

Today is National Poetry Day when Britain is encouraged to “break the tyranny of prose for 24 hours by sharing poetry in every conceivable way.”

Here are a selection of Buddhist poems and poems with a "Buddhist" theme to them for the day...

Wind and Rain

Wind and rain,
Mara again
But no, I don't feel no pain
Wind and rain,
Trying to drive me insane
But I know it's all in the brain

Demons, demons!
At it again
Trying to mind-hack me once more
Her body so fine,
But there's no gold mine
Behind the exterior

Sensations are temporal,
Their value material
And I've glimpsed beyond this lower realm
If you ain't got wisdom,
You better get spiritual
I'll see you in the next life,
Yes, I'll see you in the next life

Ashley Burns

Ode I. 11

Leucon, no one’s allowed to know his fate,
Not you, not me: don’t ask, don’t hunt for answers
In tea leaves or palms. Be patient with whatever comes.
This could be our last winter, it could be many
More, pounding the Tuscan Sea on these rocks:
Do what you must, be wise, cut your vines
And forget about hope. Time goes running, even
As we talk. Take the present, the future’s no one’s affair.

Horace (Roman, 65-8 BCE)

Night Prologue

Warm at centre, on a long winter’s night.
Through the bone-cage, through the breathflow,
buds of silence are opening out:
awareness shimmers; suffusions glow;
the heart is listening, translucent, bright;
a filigree pulse unbinds my head.

This joy – what is this lovely drawing near,
gathering up horizons, moulding attention?
A spring, welling up through still zero;
a turning tide that unbends intention
into a resonance that enshrines us here:
bare room; a small lamp; presence, burning.

Shine: let my colours find the axis.
And my soft-edged shadow feel your turning.

Ajahn Sucitto

And now, why poetry matters..............................