picnic time :D

[alee_grrl]

Sunday, every Sunday, let's have a community picnic. It's probably been a long week, and it's lovely to have a few minutes to sit back and relax and enjoy some good conversation in a less formal space. Feel free to bring something for the Picnic Basket - a poem you liked this week, a thought you had or something you experienced, or even something completely unrelated to poetry whatsoever that you just feel like sharing. Just take a moment to say hello, and maybe have a bite to eat; no one is going anywhere fast, and the shade promises some relief from the everyday heat. Let’s get to know each other a bit better, here under the branches of the poet’s tree.

Climbing the Poet's Tree: Challenges #11 and 12

[alee_grrl]

Congratulations to lnhammer for willing Challenge #9, the write a poem about nature challenge. Thanks to all who entered, all the entries were wonderful. We didn't have any entries for Challenge #10, so no winner to declare for that challenge.

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For Writers:
Challege #11: This week ysabetwordsmit introduced us to some lovely examples of sacred poetry. Sacred poetry can reflect many religions and spiritual traditions. This weeks challenge is to write a sacred poem.

For Readers:
Challenge #12: Pick one of the poem's shared this week and write a comment about that poem. What struck you particularly, what did you like? Doesn't have to be a long or complicated comment. Link to your comment in a reply to this post. If you've already commented on one of the posts it's okay to link back to that comment.

This week's prizes:
Winner of each challenge gets zir choice of 30 dreamwidth points (the equivalent of one month of paid time), or a icon or poem (any format, though some make take more time than others, and on a topic of your choice) by alee_grrl.

( ”Details )

Note that you do not have to be a member of POETREE, or even Dreamwidth for that matter, to participate. When you complete one of the challenges, please comment at this post with links to your poem or comments; if you complete both, please comment separately for each challenge. Deadline for challenge is Friday, June 1, 2012 at 11:59 EDT. Winners will be announced that Sunday.

Buddhist Poetry: "If you want to be free" by Linji

[ysabetwordsmith]

Buddhism is an Eastern faith. It emphasizes nonviolence and the search for enlightenment. Some branches also have a tradition of "crazy wisdom," leading to things like the Zen koans. There is also a strong philosophical component.

Linji was a Chinese poet and spiritual teacher. He founded his own school of Buddhism. He used surprise to startle people into moments of enlightenment.

"If you want to be free"
by Linji

If you want to be free,
Get to know your real self.
It has no form, no appearance,
No root, no basis, no abode,
But is lively and buoyant.
It responds with versatile facility,
But its function cannot be located.
Therefore when you look for it,
You become further from it;
When you seek it,
You turn away from it all the more.

Buddhist Poetry: "The Dukkha Path" by Elizabeth Barrette

[ysabetwordsmith]

I find Buddhism interesting, though it's not a path I follow personally. I've written a fair bit of poetry that touches on similar motifs, especially haiku. Most Buddhist poetry tends to focus on enlightenment. But there's a shadow side to the system that reveals what goes on in the unenlightened mind. Dukkha is the concept of suffering from wrong choices or thoughts, and how the harm caused to another can also complicate one's own life. So for contrast I picked a poem along this angle.

The Dukkha Path
by Elizabeth Barrette

Dread like a blast of sleet-toothed wind,
Hatred like a lake of boiling lead,
Resentment like a field of deep green nettles,
Frustration like a wall of fist-dented bricks,
Anger like a forest of pines on fire,
Sorrow like a riverbed parched to mud,
Disappointment like a mist of receding mirages,
Regret like a yard of bleached white bones,
Exhaustion like a bog without a bottom,
All laid out under a sullen sky --

These places where you have led me
Now lie before you,
Placed in your path by the actions of your own hand.

Native American Poetry: "A Sioux Prayer" by Chief Yellow Lark

[ysabetwordsmith]

Native American religion is diverse in detail but unified in its underlying reverence for the natural world. Each tribe has its own cosmology, beliefs, and practices. These tend to form around the specific plants, animals, and geographic features important in their home territory. Humanity is seen as a part of nature, not as having dominion over it.

Poetry from these traditions reflects that perspective, even when translated into English. Most of it evokes images of sky and earth, spirit and animal. Here's an example from the Sioux.

A Sioux Prayer
Translated by Chief Yellow Lark - 1887

Oh, Great Spirit, whose voice I hear in the winds
Whose breath gives life to the world, hear me
I come to you as one of your many children
I am small and weak
I need your strength and wisdom

May I walk in beauty
Make my eyes ever behold the red and purple sunset.
Make my hands respect the things you have made
And my ears sharp to your voice.
Make me wise so that I may know the things you have taught your children.

The lessons you have written in every leaf and rock
Make me strong!
Not to be superior to my brothers, but to fight my greatest enemy ... myself

Make me ever ready to come to you with straight eyes,
So that when life fades as the fading sunset,
May my spirit come to you without shame.

Native American Poetry: "Shaman Song" by Elizabeth Barrette

[ysabetwordsmith]

Given my reverence for nature, Native American spirituality is a good fit for me, and you can see a lot of that in my writing. The poem below originally appeared in PagaNet News. It draws on two instruments used for sacred music, the rattle and the flute, along with other motifs.

Shaman Song
by Elizabeth Barrette

Toward me the twilight comes rustling, rustling,
A vast black blanket beaded with stars:
Tall as the sky, the night approaches
With a rattle in each hand

susurrus, susurrus

Making everything sacred as it comes.

Ant-stones chatter in a Turtle shell,
Dry beans tumble in a gourd

susurrus, susurrus

Bringing dreams and visions.

Towards me the morning comes
Clear air like a flute's cry

we who, we who

The shaman darkness seeks its rest,
The rattles fall still
But I remember:

susurrus, susurrus, susurrus...

Atheist Poetry: "God Died" by Bill Barnes

[ysabetwordsmith]

When discussing religion, for the sake of completion, one should consider atheism among the traditions. It can be a personal path but it also has a wider culture of its own, shared tenets of belief. That does include positive beliefs, chiefly to do with human morality and the value of rational thought, not just the negative statement that there is no deity.

Atheists write poetry too. They can be snarky about slaying the sacred cows. But they can also reveal the lyric beauty of the human mind, the courage of being mortal in a worldview that does not encompass eternal life or any special divine purpose. It is enough to be human. That's special on its own. We can be marvelous, moral creatures without need for an outside source of it.

Untitled (God Died)
by Bill Barnes, an ex-Christian

God died today in the heart of another man.
Ashes to ashes, dust to dust,
And in this soil a seed is planted.

God died today in the mind of another woman.
The black dirt, the moist earth,
From this new garden, wisdom grows.

I was always taught that God died that I might live.
I never realized how true this was.
His death nourishes the seeds of wisdom, happiness, and freedom.

This is a eulogy, a benediction.
I am saddened by my loss,
But know a better life is ahead of me.

Love and hate marked this relationship.
I loved this mythical invisible father.
I hated the crotchety old judge.

Like the child of an alcoholic,
Or a battered wife, who still loves her husband,
I am glad he’s gone, but I still miss him.

The new garden I have has wonderful plants,
But I still have to pull weeds of doubt and guilt,
It’s my responsibility now.

As a child must grow and leave the safety of home,
I have grown and left the eternal security of heaven.
I have outgrown my god, and laid him to rest.

Atheist Poetry: "Ari and the Atheist" by Elizabeth Barrette

[ysabetwordsmith]

With my diversity of religious interests, obviously I'm not an atheist. However, I do believe that it's a valid path. If I didn't have experience with deities, I probably wouldn't believe in them either; and I certainly don't worship any of the ones I consider to be obnoxious. I also understand that people can be virtuous in their own right without needing divine directives to do it.

This poem belongs to my series Path of the Paladins, which is all about faith and devotion. Except it happens to be in a world that is really, really messed up and the gods are substantially responsible for that. So what's it like for someone to turn his back on the very active gods in that setting, and manage his own morality?

Ari and the Atheist
by Elizabeth Barrette

In the village square there stood a bread-cart.
It was the sort of thing that some priests provided
to feed those who might otherwise go hungry,
so the food was always cheap,
or free if you couldn't afford anything.

Ari headed for it at once, hoping to get
a pair of rolls for her and Shahana.
Yet the fading paint on the cart was plain,
no god-sign marked anywhere that she could see.
"Who do I have to thank for this bounty?"
she asked as she selected her bread.

"Just me," said the man with a gap-toothed grin.
"I'm an atheist, girl.
You won't find any god-sign on my cart."

"But how can you not believe in the gods
when they move through the world so much?"
Ari asked. "It's obvious that they exist."

"Oh, I know they're real enough,"
the atheist said. "I ain't blind.
I just happen to think they're all a bunch of dumbasses
and I refuse to worship any of them.
I mean, look at the mess they've made of this world."

"Well," Ari said faintly,
"I suppose it's hard to argue with that."

"Anyhow, I figure if I want to have
a world worth living in, I'd best fix it myself,"
the atheist said.

So Ari gave him a coin for the two rolls
and said, "Thank you for this bounty,"
and if it was decidedly odd to say that
to a mortal man instead of a deity,
Ari kept that part to herself.

When Ari returned with their lunch,
Shahana asked who was to thank for it,
and the girl replied, "That man over there.
He's an atheist. But he makes very good bread,
and he's determined to fix the world himself."

"Well," the paladin said as she accepted her roll,
"he's doing better than some zealots I could name."