shooting star

(Dodecatheon meadia)

john martone

samuddo /ocean
After this the Venerable Ananda said:
‘Lord, may the Blessed Lord not pass
away in this miserable little town of
wattle-and-daub, right in the jungle in
the back of beyond!’

—Mahaparinibbana sutta
these woods
this rain

these roots
this spring

3
 open yr notebook
& that’s where
rain falls

4
ah sun
at last—

the wicker
bicycle

basket
over
flows!

5
no mail—
cloudless sky
& a kayak

6
—turns
into

a deer-
path—
looking

for
lorine

7
 my chest
crowded
hollow tree

8
close yr eyes & there’s a pond

9
 eyes closed now
youre pushing
thru cattails

10
eyes closed
tortoise suns
on a stone

11
 john-boat
waits for
old man

12
you walk
around
the pond

row back
across

13
 you wash
yr face

& eyes
at pond

14
eyes
closed at

the pond
thou
water

color-
ist

15
Just as though there were a lake whose
waters welled up from below…

Maha-Assapura sutta, 16
starling
feathers

willow
flowers

17
 sleep
in yr
car
under
pines

18
crossing a spring swamp another soul

19
 crashing thru reeds
here are
yr arms

20
picking up pebbles again that old vice

21
 what
were you

thinking
of—

empty
those
pockets

22
walk on moss now
& wood ears
listen

23
 somewhere in all this
starstuff you’ve lost
yr glasses

24
no teeth
or glasses—looks
like you

25
 w/out
those

eye
glasses
it’s

a stained
glass

world

26
lost yr glasses
look at that
fresh air!

27
Just as a man with good sight…

Indriyabhatvana sutta 4
blind white worm
you know
my depths

29
 blind white worm
made completely
out of me
out of me

30
one end
to the other
blind white worm

31
 numberless
galaxies
gone

into you
blind white worm

32
mussel shell
sandfly

riverine
human

33
 yr whole
life
in this

river
&

never
clean

34
magnolias
already
a mess

35
a boy wanders off from that family picnic

36
an undersea earthquake
his retina
detaches

37
 a vitreous
detachment—
inner light!

38
floaters
an eyeful
of shipwreck

39
 floaters
in his eye
& empty fields

40
poor brain they say it’s a bottomless lake

41
 glaucoma
but happy—
mother’s side

42
a blue heron takes flight thru glaucoma

43
On the rubbish heap…

Dhammapada 59
a fountain pen at dawn

45
my fountain pen’s
point a small
garden trowel

46
a fool’s soft flesh—
a crawdad’s
chitin

47
you watch those fingerprints tumble downriver

48
another dusk
the orange
kayak’s prow

49
gaps where teeth were – a beachcomber

50
his bag of shells
his sleeping bag

a fire spot in sand

51
 other side of rusting fence ferns

52
tent stake lost in a may-apple grove—

53
 fiddlehead
ridge turns
too

54
fiddleheads
my rolled up
sleeping bag!

55
 fiddlehead
spider
spins

56
all morning
fiddleheads
my compass

57
human again--
fallen oak
covered w/ wood ears

58
fallen oaks—
a settlement—
dutchman’s breeches!

59
 just past lightning’d
tree you hear
children

60
perfect
ly still

to see
you swift

61
 walk
till youre
out

side
yrself

in
a cloud
of

unknow
ing

gnats

62
ev’ry way to open—
fiddlehead – trillium –
morel

63
Each lotus flower in the Pure Land radiates
many thousand myriad rays of Light. and in
every ray a Buddha appears. Each Buddha,
bright as gold, sends for a hundred thousand
rays of Light to the worlds in ten directions,
and always preaches the supreme Law in
order to lead all beings along the Way to
Buddhahood.
Shinran
bowed head—
gold—

about to
open—

yr name
is—

65
 shepherd’s crook
till you open—
shooting star

66
red sweater tied
around yr waist
shooting star

67
 10000 shooting stars
on a hill
on their own

68
shooting stars all from one center

69
there—sat & watched
you flower
shooting star

70
shooting stars
a human being
tries to be quiet

71
Not by matted hair, nor by lineage, nor
by birth…

Dhammapada 393
cliff swallows sweep
close to me
as if—

73
 driftwood – everything’s a root

74
river’s
pair of
torn shoes

75
 river-bank shoes
weren’t yours
blue heron—

76
duct tape to wrap
a shoe’s loose
sole back

77
 dirty shoes
no worry
where you’re going

78
torn-up shoes

mussel shells

a fossil

(or 2)

79
 old shoes
& yr teeth
about the same

80
torn-up shoes – you
remember that
lady’s slipper

81
 trim
finger
nails

short
as you
can

&
pull yr
shoe

laces
tight

82
next day – shoes still
river-wet – you
work on a roof

83
 dirty
old shoes

sparrow!

84
 linger
in

attic
bed

listen
to

birds
it’s all

beyond
you

86
spar
rows

all
on

our
own

87
 sparrows
my check
hasn’t come

88
simple things
to write

w/out
yr glasses

89
 tulips in my attic too!

90
at last
that eye

emit
ting

visiv
rays—

tulip!

91
 tulip petals surpass
the human
eyelid

92
o my
attic—

tulip
petals

&
a type
writer

93
all the tulip
petals fallen—
caduceus

—may 2011