grapez reverts and retires in a single act

this blog has been officially retired (as well as reverted back to its original name and kept online for posterity's sake). all future poetry and poetics will be posted at sonrivers. com (aka http://sonrivers.blogspot.com/ ). spirituality and poetry cannot be separated: into the mystic!

Eastern

Sitting in the shade,
I look acoss the river
at a wall of eastern
pines; it could be several
hundred years ago.
The sun is shining there
and not a motor boat
has been invented yet.
And I remain unborn.





~Kokoro Sonzai 2010 (trans. Son Rivers)

No Zen

this is not a zen-like poem;
there is no zen within these words:
in fact there is no poem at all.





~Kokoro Sonzai 2010 (trans. Son Rivers)

Drop

Two years ago I crossed
the southwest desert thinking
about a drop of truth
that's totally undrinkable.

Now it's hot and humid
in New England and
I'm drinking cold green tea
it's true--but sweetly unthinkable.





~Kokoro Sonzai 2010 (trans. Son Rivers)

before there was being

the sea is me before there was being.
being the sea is like sighting first land
without seeing. i sit on that land
understanding the sea is but nothing.
now a wave is rising and the sea is me, being.





~Kokoro Sonzai 2010 (trans. Son Rivers)

nothing but moon

nothing but the moon tonight—
and cotton-like clouds in burnished shreds...
above a ragged wall of black pine trees
lining the narrow road sporadically lit—
where I and this form of a shadow split.





~Kokoro Sonzai 2010 (trans. Son Rivers)

the smallest events

the river magnifies the smallest event.
one duck chases another in flight.
an osprey flies toward the opposite shore.
a fish rolls over and touches the sky.
i feel the wind as if i weren’t even here.





~Kokoro Sonzai 2010 (trans. Son Rivers)

within

high tide full moon
the howl of waves like me
in love within
this manifesting tune





~Kokoro Sonzai 2010 (trans. Son Rivers)

outage

howling wind
sounding like the ghost of
lights out!





~Kokoro Sonzai 2010 (trans. Son Rivers)

twentyten 005: line of chaos

in the empty harbor
there’s low tide momentum
towards a white line of chaos
where the never-ending sea is breaking
on an ever-changing river





~Kokoro Sonzai 2010 (trans. Son Rivers)

twentyten 004: the nowcast

the forecast was for heavy snow
but nowcasting had changed its mind
to almost nothing:
just enough to fill
its spot in space





~Kokoro Sonzai 2010 (trans. Son Rivers)

twentyten 003: Profile

I rested at
the Old Man of the Mountain viewpoint
to look at ledges where the Profile formed
before collapsing but beheld
dense fog instead.





~Kokoro Sonzai 2010 (trans. Son Rivers)

twentyten 002: returning sun

like stained glass
plates of ice are floating
down the steeple river in
the holy resurrection of returning
sun so let us play





~Kokoro Sonzai 2010 (trans. Son Rivers)

twentyten 001: superer

super bowl sunday isn’t superer
than any ordinary day this winter:
empty chilly mostly
sunny with a kiss
of space-time being bliss





~Kokoro Sonzai 2010 (trans. Son Rivers)