Zen Poems by Leslie Barclay
1.
One day it thought
I am it.
No, said the universe.
We are it.
You are we.
It replied
Truly, what is it?
For now I am lost.
And so it began to learn.
2.
Green was enjoying the morning sun
When Blue started to cry.
I fear that I shall not endure.
For I feel the presence of black.
Green stopped to consider.
Blue is very fine. But so is black.
Why fret about change, my friend, asked Green.
To which Blue replied.
Change is death. I am afraid to die.
Green knowing well that to live is to die
And to die is to live
Smiled and said.
In Blue there is black. And in Black there is Blue.
There is no death. There is no life.
Smile.
And so Green and Blue enjoyed each other.
And were.
3.
The student is looking at the teacher
And thinking.
What is all this nonsense?
I know. I am.
Suddenly the teacher asks.
Who are you?
Now the student lazily replies.
I am me.
At which the teacher shouts
No.
Not you.
I don't know me!
You are the teacher.
4.
A gentle butterfly
Landed on a flower.
And an artist painted the scene,
Throwing in the sky for full measure.
A photographer saw this
And took a picture.
Can't you see?
Said the man at the photo exhibit.
It is all one.
His friend disagreed. (He was a philosopher)
No. It is many.
A butterfly. A flower. The sky. The artist.
Are you so sure?
Asked the butterfly of the flower.
I am I and you are you?
And fluttered off into nowhere.
Ten thousand things endured as one.
5.
Dancing, the boundaries fade.
In love where are they?
Thinking, I see the differences.
Doing, I manage the differences.
And become.
Becoming, I feel.
Feeling, I want.
Wanting, I hurt.
From hurt I can see.
I begin to love.
Loving, I dance.
As the water flows to
Never
And ever.
6.
To both connect and disconnect
At once
Without desiring so.
The real world that is equally unreal
Then opens
And you can see
With your mind
What once your eyes only glossed over.
7.
The coffee
That sits in the cup
is out there
not me.
It transforms
as I drink it.
It integrates.
Now both a part of me
And yet not me.
Like every cell
That constitutes
This self I call me
It too shall pass
Me -- not me -- me
Only me -- only not me.
What is me?
What is coffee?
8.
The senses are a tool
But be wary of becoming
A tool of your tools.
I use without being a user
For I am here, but
I am not.
Like a ship at sea
That can drift aimlessly
Or be guided.
Yet who truly guides it?
9.
When she asked
Where are you?
I answered
Here. (I think)
And where will you be?
I don't know.
Where were you?
Everywhere?! No where?!
Where do you want to be?
Where I am.
Neither becoming nor became.
Rather, at one.
Immersed in the great journey
That goes nowhere and everywhere.
That is everything and nothing.
Tat tvam asi.
10.
And I thought
It's nice
To not think
To not be.
It's sweet
To know
And yet not know.
It's subtle
To understand
To love.
11.
Can you touch the wind?
I asked
of the MIND
That moves the mind.
I smiled
And I knew.
12.
I am moving from here to there
But suddenly there becomes here
As it has always been.
I look around me and see clocks.
The ticking, humming, buzzing, turning, moving
Of these infernal time machines
Affect my consciousness
As my head throbs
And my body aches.
However, in an instant I remember
that time is like 'there'.
Then is now and now is then.
In the midst of such immense silliness
Who should worry or be earnest?
There is time enough because there is no time.
Can you begin to understand?
Smile and relax for
Time and place are without meaning.
Truly.
In this understanding of the emptiness of the Universe
Comes peace.