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Last week's postings of Allen's haiku (from "(21) Haiku composed in the backyard cottage at 1624 Milvia Street, Berkeley, 1955, while reading R.H.Blyth's 4 volumes, Haiku"met with sufficiently enthusiastic response to embolden us to post more - these, more recent experiments from 1973 and 1975 (published in 1978's Mostly Sitting Haiku):
Mountain wind slow as breath,/mist drifts over pines -/ I've sat twenty days on this same pillow!
Meditation hall silent/ bird slammed into window/ sat brooding half an hour/ Saw Buddha then.
Fog rolling down/ the nountain/ the tram lift towers/above leafless aspen/Clouds part and blue sky shows.
A mountain outside/a room inside/a skull above/Snow on the mountain/flowers in the room/thoughts in the skull.
Snow mountain fields/ seen thru transparent wings/ of a fly on the windowpane.
Use breath as Manjusri/ Sword instantly cutting/ down thought after thought/heaviness of sleep dream/ fantasy, breath after breath/ outward.
(Graffiti in Teton Village) - "If you voted for Nixon/You won't shit here/Cause your asshole's in/ Washington."
(from Chogyam Trungpa's Crazy Wisdom Lectures - Observations Mixed With Trungpa Quotes) - "In the realm of Great Bliss" / Bark,/Bow Wow!
"No hope No fear"/ Pens rustle on paper -/ Steinbeck is coughing.
"Discipline, real Discipline"/ Yellow carnations open/under flood lamps in the tent.
"Talk stand shit"/ eat sleep -/ Flies walking on my nose.
"Good at the beginning.."/ tears roll down/ my palsied right cheek.
"You're not going to get your money back"/ Everybody laughing - / "Any questions?"
"Willing to be Fool?"/ Night moths/ circle the tent pole.
"Emptiness, no need for policy-maker.."/ Secretaries lean together/ at the tent wall.
"What do we mean by Craziness?"/ Dogs bark to each other/ across the meadow at night.
Against brown grass/ the hole in a black truck tire/ swings slowly between trees.
Sunlight mixed with dust/ rises behind a truck/ on the dirt road.
Rows of sitting heads -/ blue windows, car/parked silent on grass.
and
(from Cabin In The Rockies)
Sitting on a stump with half cup of tea,/ sun down behind mountains -/ Nothing to do.
Not a word! Not a word!/ Flies do all my talking for me -/ and the wind says something else.
Fly on my nose/ I'm not the Buddha/ There's no enlightenment here.
Against red bark truck/ A fly's shadow/ lights on the shadow of a pine bough.
White sun up behind pines,/ a moth flutters past/ the brown wood pile.
An hour after dawn/ I haven't thought of Buddha once yet!/ - walking back into the retreat house.
(Walking into King Sooper after Two-Week Retreat) - A thin red-faced pimpled boy/ stands alone minutes/looking into the ice cream bin.
(Park Avenue, Paterson - 2 a.m.) - A red sweater/ crumpled on lawn grass/ under bright streetlights -/ across the street from Louis' hospital.
The withered purple roses droop/ on their green dry-leafed stalks/ father dying Cancered in the bedroom.
and, five from 1976:
I thought my mother was dead and/lamented her/surrounded by billions of mothers/ cows grass-blades and girlfriends' eyes.
Buddha died and/ left behind a/ big emptiness.
Candle-light blue banners incense,/ aching knee, hungry mouth -/ any minute the gong - potatoes &/ sour cream!
Sunlight on the red zafu/ clank of forks and plates -/ I used to sit like this years ago.
Did you ever see yourself/a breathing skull/looking out the eyes?
Here's a recording of Allen reading - more haiku
For related syllabic experiments - see, (amongst other works), "136 Syllables At Rocky Mountain Dharma Center" and "American Sentences".
Clik here to view.
Last week's postings of Allen's haiku (from "(21) Haiku composed in the backyard cottage at 1624 Milvia Street, Berkeley, 1955, while reading R.H.Blyth's 4 volumes, Haiku"met with sufficiently enthusiastic response to embolden us to post more - these, more recent experiments from 1973 and 1975 (published in 1978's Mostly Sitting Haiku):
Mountain wind slow as breath,/mist drifts over pines -/ I've sat twenty days on this same pillow!
Meditation hall silent/ bird slammed into window/ sat brooding half an hour/ Saw Buddha then.
Fog rolling down/ the nountain/ the tram lift towers/above leafless aspen/Clouds part and blue sky shows.
A mountain outside/a room inside/a skull above/Snow on the mountain/flowers in the room/thoughts in the skull.
Snow mountain fields/ seen thru transparent wings/ of a fly on the windowpane.
Use breath as Manjusri/ Sword instantly cutting/ down thought after thought/heaviness of sleep dream/ fantasy, breath after breath/ outward.
(Graffiti in Teton Village) - "If you voted for Nixon/You won't shit here/Cause your asshole's in/ Washington."
(from Chogyam Trungpa's Crazy Wisdom Lectures - Observations Mixed With Trungpa Quotes) - "In the realm of Great Bliss" / Bark,/Bow Wow!
"No hope No fear"/ Pens rustle on paper -/ Steinbeck is coughing.
"Discipline, real Discipline"/ Yellow carnations open/under flood lamps in the tent.
"Talk stand shit"/ eat sleep -/ Flies walking on my nose.
"Good at the beginning.."/ tears roll down/ my palsied right cheek.
"You're not going to get your money back"/ Everybody laughing - / "Any questions?"
"Willing to be Fool?"/ Night moths/ circle the tent pole.
"Emptiness, no need for policy-maker.."/ Secretaries lean together/ at the tent wall.
"What do we mean by Craziness?"/ Dogs bark to each other/ across the meadow at night.
Against brown grass/ the hole in a black truck tire/ swings slowly between trees.
Sunlight mixed with dust/ rises behind a truck/ on the dirt road.
Rows of sitting heads -/ blue windows, car/parked silent on grass.
and
(from Cabin In The Rockies)
Sitting on a stump with half cup of tea,/ sun down behind mountains -/ Nothing to do.
Not a word! Not a word!/ Flies do all my talking for me -/ and the wind says something else.
Fly on my nose/ I'm not the Buddha/ There's no enlightenment here.
Against red bark truck/ A fly's shadow/ lights on the shadow of a pine bough.
White sun up behind pines,/ a moth flutters past/ the brown wood pile.
An hour after dawn/ I haven't thought of Buddha once yet!/ - walking back into the retreat house.
(Walking into King Sooper after Two-Week Retreat) - A thin red-faced pimpled boy/ stands alone minutes/looking into the ice cream bin.
(Park Avenue, Paterson - 2 a.m.) - A red sweater/ crumpled on lawn grass/ under bright streetlights -/ across the street from Louis' hospital.
The withered purple roses droop/ on their green dry-leafed stalks/ father dying Cancered in the bedroom.
and, five from 1976:
I thought my mother was dead and/lamented her/surrounded by billions of mothers/ cows grass-blades and girlfriends' eyes.
Buddha died and/ left behind a/ big emptiness.
Candle-light blue banners incense,/ aching knee, hungry mouth -/ any minute the gong - potatoes &/ sour cream!
Sunlight on the red zafu/ clank of forks and plates -/ I used to sit like this years ago.
Did you ever see yourself/a breathing skull/looking out the eyes?
Here's a recording of Allen reading - more haiku
For related syllabic experiments - see, (amongst other works), "136 Syllables At Rocky Mountain Dharma Center" and "American Sentences".