Saturday, April 30, 2022

THREE OLD MONK POEMS (189) 


IS

Is
will be
was,
the old
monk says.

~

WHEN YOU'VE GOT

When you've got
what you want,

you always
want more.

Why is that,
the old monk asked

his students.

~

YOU FALL BEHIND

You fall behind
by trying too hard
to get ahead,
the old monk says.

~



Friday, April 29, 2022

THREE OLD MONK POEMS (188) 


IT'S LIKE GOING

It's like going to
Colorado,

only you're sleeping,
the old monk said

about his dreaming.

~

A DOZEN IS

A dozen is enough,
the old monk said

of roses and monks
on the mountain.

~

HALF OF IT

Half of it
is twice as much

when it's that good,
the old monk said.

~



Thursday, April 28, 2022

THREE OLD MONK POEMS (187) 


IF THAT'S THE WAY

If that's the way
you want it

that's how
the universe

will be,
the old monk said.

~

DON'T SAY

Don't say
too much
too much,

the old monk
advised.

~

HOW MUCH

How much
is too much

when enough
is enough,

the old monk asked.

~



Wednesday, April 27, 2022

THREE OLD MONK POEMS (186) 


IF YOU'RE GOING TO

If you're going to stray
you have to be wise enough

to know when not to,
the old monk said.

~

OVER, UNDER

Over, under,
around, and through

is the way it
gets here, star light,

the old monk said.

~

YOU DO WHEN

You do when you've got to
and you don't when you don't,
the old monk said.

~



Tuesday, April 26, 2022

THREE OLD MONK POEMS (185) 


SOMEDAY SOMEONE

Someday someone
will say Stop

and the universe
will finally listen,

the old monk said.

~

WHAT IT IS

What it is
is what it is

even where
it's not,

the old monk taught.

~

YOU CAN GET THERE

You can get there from here
but you can't get back

the man told the old monk
about Isafjordur.

~



Monday, April 25, 2022

THREE OLD MONK POEMS (184) 


IT'S HARD TO SAY

It's hard to say
how much is enough
when it keeps on coming,
the old monk says.

~

WHEN IT SLOWS

When it slows
you know it's getting close,

and when it finally stops,
walk towards the light,

the old monk says.

~

WATCH

Watch, and
watching watches back,
the old monk says.

~



Sunday, April 24, 2022

TEN OLD MONK POEMS (64) 


PEOPLE SET UP

People step up,
they step right up
if you ask them,
the carnival barker
told the old monk.

~

JAMES THE LESSER

James the Lesser
and James the Great --
isn't that like
Bones and Tiny,
the old monk asked.

~

EVERYTHING YOU SEE

Everything you see
is a lesson in seeing,
the old monk said.

~

YOU PLAY IT

You play it
as if it's
all a play,
the old monk told
his student.

~

IF THIS WAS

If this was
a whaling expedition
would we be talking about
doing cartwheels,
the old monk asked.

~

THE MOUNTAIN / MAKES

The mountain
makes its own storms,
the old monk warned.

~

IF THE HERMITS

If the hermits
don't find silence
can they be hermits,
the old monk asked.

~

A LANDSCAPE

A landscape
so ugly
it's beautiful --
I've seen it,
the old monk said.

~

HE CAN SHOW YOU

He can show you
the right way.
He can show you
the wrong way.
And he can show you
a third way,
just to show off,
the master said
about the old monk.

~

MIDNIGHT

Midnight.
The old monk is still
counting stars.

~


Saturday, April 23, 2022

THREE OLD MONK POEMS (183) 

 
IT WILL STOP

It will stop
when you don't

want it to,
and won't go

when you do,
the old monk

complained
about the old

lawnmower.

~

WHEN SOMEONE SAYS

When someone says stop,
that's only one edge

of the known universe,
the old monk said.

~

YOU GIVE HIM

You give him a bus pass
and he still keeps walking,
they say about the old monk.

~



IN THE NEWS 


When push comes to shove,
sometimes you have to,
the old monk said.



Friday, April 22, 2022

IN THE NEWS 


It's a solar-power
perpetual motion machine
and we're wrecking it,
the old monk said
on Earth Day.



THREE OLD MONK POEMS (182) 


ONE MORE

One more is
two and it's

another one,
the old monk said.

~

COMING OFF

Coming off
the mountain

I can say things
I cannot say,

the old monk says.
That's why I go.

~

OFFER TO BUY

Offer to buy
a hundred

and see what
they say,

the old monk
said to his friend

at the market.

~



Thursday, April 21, 2022

THREE OLD MONK POEMS (181) 


LIE ON YOUR MAT

Lie on your mat
as if you were dead

and listen to the stars.
Death will come

soon enough,
the old monk said.

~

WHEN IT'S DONE

When it's done
it's done, and you
lay down your pencil,
the old monk said
about life and stuff.

~

YOU'RE NOT DONE

You're not done
til you lay down

your pencil,
the old monk

told the poet.

~



Wednesday, April 20, 2022

THREE OLD MONK POEMS (180) 


IF THERE ARE

If there are great themes,
why can't I find them,
the old monk asked
the critics.

~

EVEN WHEN

Even when
he wants to

eat, he keeps
preaching,

the old monk.

~

SOME WOULD SAY

Some would say
a hundred is enough.

The old monk says
I'm just beginning.

~



IN THE NEWS 


Armies don't march any more,
they crawl,
the old monk observed.



Tuesday, April 19, 2022

THREE OLD MONK POEMS (179) 


ALMOST

Almost
is about as much

as I can understand,
the old monk says.

~

IF THAT'S WHAT

If that's what you've got,
make yourself happy,
the old monk advised.

~

IT ONLY LOOKS LIKE

It only looks like
there's nothing there,

there where there's
nothing,

the old monk said.

~



IN THE NEWS 


If you only say
help is on the way
it won't mean much,
the old monk said.



Monday, April 18, 2022

THREE OLD MONK POEMS (178) 


WHEELS ON THE BOTTOM

Wheels on the bottom,
that's how you always
like it to land,
the old monk said.

~

SOMETIMES IT SLOWS

Sometimes it slows,
the faster you go,
the old monk says.

~

WATCHING EMPTINESS

Watching emptiness
is one way to keep from
falling off the mountain,
the old monk said.

~



Sunday, April 17, 2022

TEN OLD MONK POEMS (63) 


WHEN THE THUNDER

When the thunder
god thunders

is when to
start the beat,

the old monk
told the band.

~

ALL THE WAY DOWN

All the way down
to silence is
as low as I can go,
the old monk said.

~

IF YOU DO

If you do
the same thing

you'll get
the same result,

unless it's
a sonnet,

the old monk told
the poet.

~

WHATEVER THEY OFFER

Whatever they offer
won't be enough --
and it won't keep you
out of trouble,
the old monk said.

~

I DID ONCE CALCULATE

I did once calculate
the speed at which we're flying
through the universe,
but now I've forgotten,
the old monk said.

~

YOU WILL LEARN IT

You will learn it
but you will learn it
too late -- falling off
the side of the mountain,
the old monk said.

~

THAT WHICH IS BROKEN

That which is broken here
will be whole in your dream,
the old monk promised.

~

THE GOD OF THE STORM

The God of the Storm
lives on the mountain,
the old monk said.
You need to be prepared.

~

WERE IT NOT FOR

Were it not for
our need to see God
we wouldn't have
poetry,
the old monk said.

~

ALL YOU NEED IS

All you need is
all you want
on the mountain,
the old monk said.

~



THREE OLD MONK POEMS (177) 


PUSH IT

Push it so hard
you push it,
the old monk advised
the QC manager.

~

IT'S A PHASE

It's a phase
you go through,

thinking you're
in heaven

on the mountain,
the old monk said.

~

SO MANY OF YOU

So many of you
will be experts

only in dying
because you don't

have much
other experience,

the old monk said.

~



IN THE NEWS 


I think I made a terrible mistake
is something you could say
at this point,
the old monk told Mr. Putin.



Saturday, April 16, 2022

THREE OLD MONK POEMS (176) 


WHEN IT DOES

When it does
what you want
it to do,
do it,
the old monk said.

~

PAYING TWICE

Paying twice
for half of it

is no way to
make a profit,

the old monk says.

~

DON'T DO

Don't do
too many of them
in a row--
you won't get up
in the morning,
the old monk said.

~



Friday, April 15, 2022

THREE OLD MONK POEMS (175) 


LET THE WIND

Let the wind blow through,
the old monk said.
The stars have done their business.

~

IF YOU LOOK

If you look at it right,
it looks back at you,
the old monk said
about his mirror.

~

WHEN YOU SEE IT

When you see it
from the other side
it almost looks
better, the old monk
told the artist.

~



Wednesday, April 13, 2022

THREE OLD MONK POEMS (174) 


IT'S AN EMPTINESS

It's an emptiness,
the old monk said

about life on
the mountain.

The question is,
how do you want

to fill it?

~

YOU CAN SPLIT IT

You can split it
but you can only

split it once,
the old monk said

about atoms
and other things.

~

UNDERSTANDING THE OLD MONK

Understanding the old monk
there's plenty around the edge
you'll never catch, his students say.

~



Tuesday, April 12, 2022

THREE OLD MONK POEMS (173) 


THE QUESTION IS

The question is
is it in the up

part of downtown
or the down

part of uptown,
your residence,

they asked
the old monk.

~

WHEN YOU ARE

When you are
close to certain,
you are close,
the old monk told
the scientist.

~

ABOUT THE TIME

About the time you get there,
it's just about time to go --
that's the way I like it,
the old monk said.

~



Monday, April 11, 2022

THREE OLD MONK POEMS (172) 


THAT'S HOW

That's how you
get their attention,
you cross them
sideways,
the old monk said.

~

NOT BELIEVING

Not believing is 
also believing,
the old monk said.

~

IF THEY LINE UP

If they line up right
you let them go,
the old monk said.

He wasn't talking
only about
the mule train.

~

IT'S INK

It's ink on paper,
it's not art,
these poems,
the old monk said.

~



Sunday, April 10, 2022

TEN OLD MONK POEMS (62) 


LIGHT IS

Light is
everything
light needs,
the old monk says.

~

YOU DON'T KNOW

You don't know
until you listen,
the old monk said,

and sometimes
even then you don't.

~

THE PROMISE

The promise of water
alone won't get you
across the desert,
the old monk says.

~

IF I COULD

If I could play music
do you think I'd still be preaching,
the old monk said.

~

THE BETTER DEAL

The better deal is
the one you don't get to make,
the old monk says.

~

HOW COULD THEY

How could they
land where they do

if they didn't
fly where they did,

the old monk asks.

~

THE STARS DON'T

The stars don't know
when I will be

flying towards them --
or they don't tell,

the old monk said.

~

YOU HAVE PREPARED

You have prepared
your whole life

for this moment,
the old monk said,

and for the next one.

~

WHAT THEY WANT

What they want
is what you have to

carry across the desert,
the old monk

told his students.

~



THREE OLD MONK POEMS (171) 


SOME HAIRS

Some hairs
are split so fine

you can see
either side,

the old monk says.

~

POEMS ARE LIKE

Poems are like birds,
the old monk said.
Some of them stay
around and sing.

~

YOU CAN'T

You can't
think about
not thinking
about it
without thinking
about it,
the old monk says.

~



Sunday, April 03, 2022

TEN OLD MONK POEMS (61) 


IT LOOKS

It looks like that,
the old monk said,

because that's always
how you see it.

~

YOU CAN TAKE

You can take a trail
or make a trail,
the old monk said.

I usually walk
where the deer walk.

~

LIGHTNING

Lightning
listens,

but only
for a moment,

the old monk says.

~

IF YOU EVER

If you ever had to
you'll never want to,
the old monk says.

~

MORE IS

More is too much.
Adjust your desires
accordingly,
the old monk says.

~

IF YOU CAN

If you can do it
but you can't

do it again,
choose wisely,

the old monk says.

~

THAT RIVER

That river is gone
before you can cross it,
the old monk said.

~

BETWEEN

Between
the universe

and nothingness,
the place where

it is neither --
inhabit that,

the old monk says.

~

SING PRAISE

Sing praise
if the sun comes up,
the old monk says.

Sing praise
if it doesn't.

~

SOMEONE ALWAYS

Someone always
wants to turn
where you go straight,
the old monk says.

~



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