Three Zen Poems

Three Zen Poems
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Characteristically
Sitting
Movie Muse
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Characteristically

“I have lots of answers,
all the questions allude me.”
—Philip Whalen, “Zen Interview,”
Disembodied Poetics

San Francisco so—
Characteristically
Postage stamp compressed

Down the steep hill—
Pacific Heights ritzy view
Japantown mon amour

Past eucalyptus—
Old Victorian mansions
Empty bay-windows

Sitting

“So much of what I’ve
written because I saw things
or heard things immediately.”
—Philip Whalen, “Zen Interview,”
Disembodied Poetics

Sometimes it was something—
As simple as a line in a book
That caught my attention

A word, a phrase with—
A particular immediacy that
Just wouldn’t go away

A “minute particular”—
As Blake would say that
Gloms onto the moment

Movie Muse

“My writing in a picture
of the mind moving”
—Philip Whalen, “Zen Interview,”
Disembodied Poetics

My writing is—
Continuously directed
By immediate images

The Buddha dharma—
Of other writers writing
Sitting inside me

Sitting with them—
Listening to them speak
Immediately to me