Selected Poems, Third Quarter, 2013

Dear Full Moon Friends –We so enjoyed all our wonderful submissions! As you may remember, during 2013, we are Selecting Poems not monthly but once a Quarter. For this, the Third Quarter, we have seven Selected Poems, some long, some short. Here are the first two – enjoy.

To that question
You could never
Ask me,
I still don't have
An answer.

--David Clark

The Instagram app

has a lighten/darken edit button

A bodhisattva I know

uses it to travel

from darkness to enlightenment

and back again

Although why he would do this

is something I’m still trying to work out

--Richard Velez

Selected Poems, Third Quarter, 2013

(The two poems  following were the result of a game.  Several friends each gave their versions of a poem by Li Bai— also known as Li Po.)


the mountain: questions and answers 
by Li Bai


ask for me           where desire lives on green jade mountain

laugh when there's no reply             my heart is free of care

peach petals disperse upon the river's surface            

they disappear depart            under heaven's sky I am alone


--Wulf Losee

the beauty of mountains
there are
no questions
no answers
emotions flow

through me

on green mountain
like petals
in a stream

together, apart
we disappear

--Brian Howlett

Selected Poems, Third Quarter, 2013

An Untrustworthy Translation of Du Fu's In Abbot Zan's Study, Poem #3

Insomnia is defined by lamplight and shadows.

Heart and mind are clear, I inhale the incense.

The halls are quiet except for fluttering draughts.

As a chain of moments unwinds in my mind

springtime awaits me in the watered courtyards.

Outside the Earth is hidden in a fragrant night

from my window I see the stars of the Jade Rope

setting. An iron phoenix is about to rise –

the Sanskrit scrolls have unrolled their sutras

and the hour is leaving the temple – a bell rings

echoing and diminishing washing around my cot.

The heat of the morning falls on the fields.

The yellow earth is drying in the bright day.

--Wulf Losee