Field of Perception

I have the night free, do you, my love?
We might then walk together to the field
Where the chickens potter and the hens
Cry out their own awakenings.

For mystery's sake, I do not go there enough.

It is the place we happen upon only when
Contingencies overlap, it is the place that
Presents itself to us only when an event
Draws our attention to the field that is already
Open and waiting, so long as we see it,
It is the field that is itself an event.

And we can go there, so long as you’re free,
So long as you hear my gentle beckoning,
Soft as a breeze rolling down the hill.

The End of the Teachings

The old man and his student sat in silence
For one thousand and one days.
A flame flickered in the fireplace,
And they gazed upon it loosely.
When the student drifted off to sleep,
The old man said, "Wake up and listen!
You are good. Now go. Go away from me,
and when you return, bring back stories.”

Reading Wittgenstein (His Works)

for Desirée


You read Wittgenstein (his works), but can I assume that you have thoughts while you read his text, or am I to assume that you read Wittgenstein (his works) with such intent concentration that no thoughts of your so-called own arise while you read him (his works), that no primordial gap opens between his words from which your so-called own thoughts spontaneously arise, out of emptiness, or out of the emptiness of Wittgenstein’s text — every word, genius empty stuff! — and as I construe the phenomenon (your reading of Wittgenstein (his works)), that, namely, the latter, the pure reading, the reading sans editorial commentary, the empty clarity of deep listening, the perfect hollowness of perfect understanding, that would be the transcendental experience, yes? no? maybe so?; nevertheless, when I learn you read Wittgenstein (his works), I am impressed by that, by what?, by the possibility of this, of your, so-called pure reading, and/or by the possibility of your so-called independent thoughts arising as you read — it occurs to me suddenly that if we give up the proverbial ghost, if we absolutely let go of duality, then it’s all the same, in other words, all thoughts in all minds at all times... (I am not afraid of the possibility of nonsense, or truth in nonsense, or nonsense in truth!) — nevertheless, I am compelled (why?) to ask you what you so-called think of, say, his essay, The Inner and the Outer (which I like), I am curious about, in plain words, your interpretation (why?), why? one might ask, well, mostly because I trust your capacity for sincerity and truthfulness, and this dialogue (in which I have faith) gives us movement (which I desire, deeply, in the cells of my body, in the gears of my being) and so it happens, and so we read, and so I beg, without purpose or center or end.... Anyhow, have you read that one? (it reminded me mostly of Ken Wilber (his works)), the one that says, “If a lion could talk, we would not understand him.”

Religious Verses of the Mystic

I. Emptiness
I love Emptiness the way I love God.
Emptiness — from which Form arises and dissolves —
I supplicate myself to All-Good Emptiness,
And ever abide in Her shimmering luminosity.

II. The Non-dual View
Form is Emptiness and Emptiness is Form,
These words are the perfection of wisdom.
In other words, God and His Creation are One,
Each moment is His spontaneous expression.

III. Wisdom & Compassion
To ascend the ladder of Goodness and Truth
Is Wisdom, to descend the ladder is Compassion.
To meet minds where each mind is, to begin
Each conversation with another's first thought.

IV. Eternal Recurrence (or Samsara)
Time is infinite, matter is finite, therefore,
The causally determined configurations of space
Will recur perpetually, cyclically; in other words,
“Great, that means I’ll have to sit through the Ice Capades again.”

V. Egolessness
Self or ego is the root of both evil and suffering.
As on a cross, I am nail-driven, as a lamb, burned,
For when I rest in Spirit or Emptiness, I am no longer,
When I transcend to formless mysticism, I is not.

VI. Transcendence
To transcend is to leap to the next concentric circle
Of spiritual evolution, and this transcendence includes
The previous circle or view; in other words, I need not
Abandon my love of God to embrace Spirit-in-action.

VII. Spirit
Henceforth, Emptiness and Form, or God and
His Creation, are called Spirit, or Spirit-in-action,
In my book of pennypomes and heartsongs,
In my verses that sing from this joyful tower.

Pennypome no. 17

for my family

a gold Lincoln is the price for a poem,
for a story, five dollars, for a novel excerpt,
a tenspot, and for absolutely all the thoughts,
a bucket of sand sharks & starfish & seahorses.

.....
attn: readers
respect: send all donations to
293 Berry Street
Brooklyn, New York, 11211