Before enlightenment; chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment; chop wood, carry water.

in poetry •  6 years ago  (edited)

A Life; Bending



If you have been following my page you may have noticed that my poetry has gotten smaller...and smaller. I have been immersing myself in the history and writing of the haiku (as well as other traditional forms such as tanka and renga). I have discovered western haiku, contemporary haiku, African American haiku...a whole discovery of these tiny three-lined worlds. Right now, I have found a home in zen...it brings me to this place that I call "the brink of unbearable inspiration". Along with my study on zen and haiku I have been working on expressing my own take on the aesthetics of beauty and art - I hope to make a blog post soon on my philosophical thoughts; this deeply reflective journey on life and writing has inspired me to publish a book which will be part essay, part collection of haiku.

Please share with me your own philosophy of life and if you have your own theory on the aesthetics of art/beauty.

This post, you could say, is a chapbook of my haiku as well as haiku-inspired poetry. Some of these are definitely not in the philosophy but are poems I felt inspired to write when I was "reclined in the state of zen" (though some of these are strict to the "rules" of the haiku tradition).

Though this book will be a project for my own joy I am curious if any of you Steemians would be interested in a hardcopy version of my poetry? Let me know <3




You go
I cry
a river longs for sleep


**


Some hop over,
some stomp through;
the puddle


**


The tree bark cracks
Thick with moss;
Another birthday


**


Even the dead
he visits;
the wasp
at my vase


**


How envious
that the pigeon begs
no purpose


**


Needles,
pricking the breeze;
sew the scent of evergreen


**


The puddle,
flooding,
spills my reflection
down a street grate


**


delusions:
Predicting rain,
and yet
I forget the season


**


Sitting in the silent room,
your music
comes to mind


**


Sun,
Through aphid lace
Speckles my lover's back -
A thousand windows invites this touch
Each freckle of light


**


The maple’s bough
bending
lower,
lower -
dips the dancing moon;
not a leaf rustled


**


Farsi,
from her lips
inscribes the sky;
lazuli
they fly -
two eagles


**


Dressed for moonlight,
only silver
only a whisper
to anoint skin
with skin


**


Water,
pooling,
makes lakes
out of collarbones


**


Two suns
one mango, one fire
spill morning’s nectar
down my browned arm

Sticky and free -

These blue plains
wedded,
still;

I bathe in canopy


**


Waning silver lip
Sips the llapping floodplains
Of this slurried night;
A conch shell
Stranded at my window
An invitation
To hear your
Name
One more
Time


**


Altars left by winter;
the twigs of a bird nest balanced
on the twigs of a tree


**


Back to back they sleep,
two bookends
Under sheets


**


Malting;
red wool caught
on the white willow


**


Floating down night’s bated breath,
my nakedness a raft
for this moon's trembling light;
drifting, drifting -
to carry
to guide,
the moon, to illume
even the slightest sigh
of love


**


Seeking warmth
above my bed -
the spiders' graveyard


**


Hiking for days,
all the trees
Mona Lisa


**


Sitting in the lawn chair
beckoning Ra;
damp leaves crisping
under foot





Health and Love, always
Zameena Zen

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Just until recently I didn't know what Haiku was. I have only discovered it through the haiku bot on steemit that is creating haiku from the comments.

Your short poems are lovely. My favorite is the one about the trees :) I usually don't buy that many hardcopies anymore as it's more comfortable to read things online. I still love books and I have many but I got a little bit comfortable which is not necessarily a good thing.

My life philosophy would be 'Live and let live'. I try to live my life the best I can without hurting anyone and anything. I started my vegan journey a few years ago and living without hurting (indirectly) animals makes me happy. I have never lived such a content life like now.

What I should improve is meditation. I struggle with the meditation greatly and I just don't seem to be able to control my thoughts and focus on my breath. I have tried many techniques but my head is just too busy. I continue my research and hopefully I will find a technique soon that will suite me.

Thank you for sharing your poems. It was my pleasure to read them.

Have a great weekend and sorry for the long comment!

Thank you so much @delishtreats for reading my poems and thank you so much for sharing your thoughts. I really like your life philosophy, it is very admirable. Since you have newly discovered the haiku I recommend you look into zazen for meditation since, like the haiku, is associated with zen thought. Don't apologize for your long comment, I appreciate you taking the time and I love reading your words!

I like this idea of tiny zen poetry. Simplistic complexity and the the brilliance of words. Really cool :)

Thank you! I am glad you like the minimal approach to language, symbolism, and imagery. There is something very moving to me about creating deep and beautiful statements with as little as possible.

Hi zameena-zen,

This post has been upvoted by the Curie community curation project and associated vote trail as exceptional content (human curated and reviewed). Have a great day :)

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I remember that many years ago I went to a recital of this oriental style that cost me to remember his name, Haiku. then a few years passed and not very happy to see how books were put with small paragraphs and were left without any use of blank spaces, I prefer to see it in digital.

I like the strength of Haiku and you have that seasoning to compose these letters, I like how you chose element like water, plants and the moon to recite.


You go
I cry
a river longs for sleep


no doubt this is my favorite has a power and an emotional charge of gigantic dimensions. and that is the best quality of Haiku that with a few words unleash in the mind a lot of thoughts and emotions, something typical in any style of poetry.

They are very well achieved and you notice the painstaking writing and research on this type of art.

in terms of different ways of seeing art and its aesthetics I think it would be pertinent to create a gray hair of discord and that through forums we can discuss many issues in an orderly manner. do you think? or would you like that through this type of link the debates take place. I like your idea very much. I always have discussions with different artists of what they consider art in a very egolotra and individual way, and with fear of criticism they prefer to abandon the conversations. art is very nice and open for example; I always propose a formula to determine the artistic qualities of any work, quality, critique creativity in Spanish would be the formula of the 3 "C" but the English changes to Q - C - C and is simple to any work I submit it to this formula to verify if it has an argument, if there is a criticism, if there is creativity then I can value it as a work of art, of course there are also other things I add and are always debatable. I like that comment you made you are the first person who read that places something similar.

Thank you very much for sharing <3 peace and love.

greetings @zameena-zen

Hi @arrozymangophoto ! Thank you for reading my haiku and for your comment. I really appreciate you taking the time to share your thoughts. Your formula for determining artistic qualities is very interesting and clever! I think the further we push our ideas and understanding on life and creativity, the further we are able to flourish as an individual and community. Thank you for contributing to the community of knowledge !

You have a great mind in poetry Zameena, excelent! I enjoyed reading each one of your poets :d

That means so much to hear, especially from someone as talented as you. Your music is very poetic <3

Congratulations! This post has been upvoted from the communal account, @minnowsupport, by Zameena Zen from the Minnow Support Project. It's a witness project run by aggroed, ausbitbank, teamsteem, someguy123, neoxian, followbtcnews, and netuoso. The goal is to help Steemit grow by supporting Minnows. Please find us at the Peace, Abundance, and Liberty Network (PALnet) Discord Channel. It's a completely public and open space to all members of the Steemit community who voluntarily choose to be there.

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