What came from the stars
Anything is possible
Oink-a-doodle-moo

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Our library network is having a book spine poetry contest and one of the categories is haiku. I love a poetry challenge so I thought I’d try. It’s harder than it seems!

Poetry

A death poem for the new year

Poetry

The glass slips out of my grasping hands.

CRASH!

A thousand suns glisten on my kitchen floor.

 


The death poem is a tradition in Zen Buddhism. Our sangha writes one at the new year every year as a way to reflect on the past year. I believe the tradition is that Buddhist monks wrote them on their death beds, but that might be more romanticism than truth. I like the idea of thinking of the putting away of the old year as a kind of death, and thinking about the new year as a rebirth.

You can read my past death poems here, and our sangha’s poems here.

What is Poetry? By Lawrence Ferlinghetti

Poetry

I just realized that today is World Poetry Day! So in desperation I searched for something to post and I dug up this gem from a few years ago: my friend and colleague reading “What Is Poetry” by Lawrence Ferlinghetti.   Her husband is on bongos. I’ve posted it before but it’s worth a re-post. It makes me smile when I hear it. 🙂

You can  learn more about Lawrence Ferlinghetti here.