Breath of Fire

Bardo of Writing

It can be said poets

talked too much

wrote too long,

listening to the sound

of their voices.

 

This was my offering

to have written little,

&

heard the sounds

of the world.

–Janet Rodney

(The Wisdom Anthology of North American Buddhist Poetry edited by Andrew Schelling, p.262)

A Misty Paradox

Janet Rodney is a poet and a Buddhist nun. Her poem allows us to enter the mist of paradox. To be a writer and value writing little. Aren’t writers supposed to write a lot? After all, they’re writers.  Let us suspend our disbelief. Let us . . . enter the bardo.

Rebirth in Writing

In Tibetan Buddhism, the bardo is the in-between state where the soul rests between death and rebirth. Symbolically, dead writing can stem from poets “listening to the sound of their voices.” Whereas, rebirth in writing could occur by translating the “sounds of the world” into original poetry.

Words of Fire

Let our words be born anew each moment from the creative spring of living water. Let us choose our words with precision, so nothing is wasted. Let us breathe in the sounds of life, then breathe out words of fire.

Photo Credit: Photo by Kevin Wallis at Flickr Creative Commons.