| PAGE ONE Fall, 2001 Issue: Spirit & Crisis EDITOR'S NOTE BUDDHASCOPE DHARMATALK FOUNDOBJECTS GUESTCOLUMN QUOTES POETRY READING ROOM REVIEWS CONTACT US SITE INDEX SUBSCRIBE |
Mahakasyapa's Smile
The electric crowd
stares at the Buddha
and waits for a
wise sermon of fire
but he keeps on
saying nothing
as he holds up
a golden lotus
flower for all
to see in the
spiraling silence.
He looks at the
dry serious faces
until out of
the coughing
comes a simple
smile to break
the awful moment
easily and fully
as the flower
floats down
to the ground
and the Buddha
leaves without
a word after
seeing Mahakasyapa's
smile. When a
monk reaches for
the lotus in the
weeds the flower
burns his fingers
like a seed
of the sun.
Some sermon, some smile.
Seated Buddha
released from rock
a stone lotus
seated and still
for centuries
a candle
silent circle
legs folded
head still
arms cradling
emptiness
Zen Garden
lonely rock worlds
ever-so-turning
in time-raked, sand wings.
shadows
across rough earths
after a rain,
with surrounding currents
of space and nothingness
around each grain
imitation of a river
swept into a stillness
of change.
nothing
but sand and rock
nothing at all
Sumi Drawing
shadows soak into the snow
of a morning,
birds carry their lines
into the white sun
a branch dances into its emptiness
behind a momentary blossom of ice
ink strokes balance
the great spaces
more snow and the branch
will snap
with thunder
quietly
The Future of the Future
The future swims
in the desert of the present,
its silent breath unheard
among the flowers & weeds blooming
in the wind-surfed sand.
A caravan plunges along
past the strewn ruins
of an ancient walled city
of a forgotten name.
Even the smell of death
has evaporated away.
Clouds pass the horizon
like skeletons in repass.
The trail is new and familiar
as each step births a burial.
It's all a womb
where old wounds leave
scars which the future follows
as it surrounds the desert
and signals its siege
with an unflappable silence
like a hidden seed in each
drop of sweat, grain of sand.
ALAN ALTANY is a professor of religious studies at Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia, and a Christian who values interreligious dialogue. His Fall 2000 Page One article for Hundred Mountain profiled Thomas Merton and his interest in Buddhism. Visit Prof. Altany's web page at this address.
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