only one koan matters
you
–Ikkyu
Ikkyu (1394-1481) was a Japanese Zen master and wandering poet. “. . .[Ikkyu] developed street Zen, out of the monastery and into the living reality of laypeople. . . . To really wake up you have to step out of the cloistered sacred and be in the midst of human life” (The True Secret of Writing: Connecting Life with Language by Natalie Goldberg, pp.182 & 185).
City Snapshots
Potholes in the street. Traps for an unaware tire or a tired pedestrian. Haiku rap . . . sung in seventeen- syllable slang. The homeless—monks in disguise. Cardboard sign: Feed the soul-starved . . . poetry. A poem written on a dollar bill floating down the alley—suspended in time. A crow perched on a power line, heart beating to the electric hum. Zen in the city.
You Matter
Cities can be chaotic. So can the mind. You are a riddle to yourself. A puzzle–not solved–but transcended. A poem in the making. You matter. Life matters.
Disappearing
One response that I had to Ikkyu’s poem is the following poem:
you . . .
disappear
one step
at a
time
–Terry Chitwood
Photo Credit: Photo by Toni Blay at Flickr Creative Commons.
Indeed true, each one of use is dealing with a big puzzle in our minds each and every day. It’s just that the niche of the puzzle gets altered from time to time, in accordance with the priority of the issues. Thanks for the beautiful share.
Thank you for your comment, Anushha.
Terry recently posted..The Only Puzzle That Matters
Life is a puzzle in itself full of twists and turns and leaves you to find clues and make your way out. Each step of our life solves one puzzle and we reach another level. Great share.
Thank you for your comment, Marytlou.
Terry recently posted..The Only Puzzle That Matters