Category: Poetry

  • Poem

    Sitting cross legged on a wooden floor      above the tiny desk, pine branches hang in rain before my eyes thru glass – a drop falls from the roof edge broken earth here, pebbles brought from afar scattered      by white treestump, green grass Crowds the path – Grey streaks my beard, I…

  • Praise to Tara

      Praise to Tara Homage to The Three Jewels Homage to Guru, Deva and Dakini Homage to you Tara, who bloom with love and compassion Homage to you Tara, who dwell in wisdom and certainty Look how you tend to pain and ease the afflictions of all Look how you protect from dangers and lift…

  • The Buddha’s Master Plan

    The Buddha’s Master Plan

      Beneath the sea of glistening stars, Between the ethereal evening air, Lies a forest of glowing dreams, But as diverse and rich as they are, None escape the same Moonbeam. Under the lucent morning glow, Roll waves of raving emotions,  Turbid fortunes and cruel woes, The burning craving of billions,  Yet the same Sun…

  • Remember by Christina Rossetti

    Remember me when I am gone away,          Gone far away into the silent land;          When you can no more hold me by the hand, Nor I half turn to go yet turning stay. Remember me when no more day by day          You tell me of our future that you plann’d:          Only remember me; you understand…

  • Haiku, Chögyam Trungpa

    The beginner in meditation Resembles a hunting dog having a bad dream ۞ His parents are having tea With his new girlfriend – Like a general inspecting his troops. ۞ Skiing in a red and blue outfit, Drinking cold beer with a lovely smile – I wonder if I’m one of them? ۞ Coming home…

  • FLAGS

      Flags are separate symbols that blow and wave, unfurl, express our pretensions that we, too, are separate, country from country body from body, mind from mind. Our bars of belief and superstition have bound us and in thrall to habit we are ready to kill in the name of a priest, an imam, a language,…

  • FROM: WHEN SNOW MOUNTAINS WEAR BLACK HATS

      May the blessings of the exalted sources of refuge, The Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, the Three Jewels And the Lama Yidam and Protectors, the three Roots, Pacify the terrors of illness, famine, war   And chaos in the elements: the temperatures Unbalanced, grand snow mountains – hard firm glaciers – Will melt and disappear.…

  • THE BRIG

    For those who like to see things in a unity, and in time for the opening of the beautiful Queensferry Crossing in a few hours, here is the entire sequence of the Brig poems: The Brig I Too often the ford had been impassable. The river tormented with a thunderous divide between the landholds of…

  • SIKKIM HAIKU SEQUENCE PART 2

    (Written by Maeve O’Sullivan on the month long retreat with Donal Creedon and Ringu Tulku Rinpoche at the Bodhicharya Retreat Centre, January 2017) January sunshine… leaves still falling roses in bloom  *** humming a tune… I haven’t played a guitar since Kathmandu  *** ‘Meditate on the sun’: his words on page 99 awash with sunlight  ***…

  • ODE TO MANCHESTER: Ani Rinchen Khandro

    The blood of Irish, Catholic immigrants And Russian, Jewish refugees Flows through the veins of this Buddhist nun, A seeker of wisdom, compassion and peace, Whose path has encircled the world and alights Now in Edinburgh, where it has stayed. But my heart cries out for Manchester, For Manchester where I was made. And I…

  • Makara

    NOVEMBER 22, 2016PURELANDSUTRAS Calligraphy: Sincerity, Serenity, Fairness, Enlightenment and Benevolence  This poem was inspired by the opening chapters of the Infinite Life Sutra, which outline Dharmakara’s (Amitabha) creation of the Western Land of Ultimate Bliss. In a time before time began, In a distant faraway land, There reigned a wise sovereign Most mighty and valiant,…

  • THE MIDDLE WAY BY TIMOTHY BARROW

    I took a road Called middle way Where two arrows pointed up: One for Svatantrika One for Prasangika. My road map said: Try both ways Don’t turn off Head for both But which one? I asked. Later that night Rose a full moon: Its light shone a fine thin beam Between two closed shutters Where…

  • Poetry by Balach “Thutob” Kohjar

      Stream Enterer a hundred paths, a thousands tricks, the sea is green, the sky blue, many years for a moment. — Remembrance How does the past delight and haunt, but as a thought? How else do you experience future, but as a thought? It is all real, but not really, Seeing that, we continue…

  • Poetry and Prose: Bruno Nua

    Here is a poem I wrote after retreating in India and doing pilgrimage with Ringu Tulku Rinpoche and the Sangha around many of the Buddhist holy places in 2006/2007. [Many of his students might remember seeing it around that time] Then some Haiku from the same period. Next a poem about my mother and Bodhicitta,…

  • The Buddha’s Masterplan

      JANUARY 21, 2017 PURELAND SUTRAS Beneath the sea of glistening stars, Between the ethereal evening air, Lies a forest of glowing dreams, But as diverse and rich as they are, None escape the same Moonbeam. Under the lucent morning glow, Roll waves of raving emotions, Turbid fortunes and cruel woes, The burning craving of…

  • Sikkim (haiku) Sequence

    (Written by Maeve O’Sullivan on the month long retreat with Donal Creedon and Ringu Tulku Rinpoche at the Bodhicharya Retreat Centre, January 2017) waxing wolf moon lighting the road to our retreat  *** less cloudy today first sight of Kanchenjunga  *** thunderclap! the new prayer flags get their first blessing  *** walking meditation… the cream-coloured butterfly…

  • When You Are Old

          When you are old and grey and full of sleep, And nodding by the fire, take down this book, And slowly read, and dream of the soft look Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep;   How many loved your moments of glad grace, And loved your beauty with love…