offering – The Halfwit Writer

I promised to be patient
I promised to be kind
I promised I would wait
until the end of time

Yet father’s banging at the door
and we all do yield to death,
what’s more delusions bind my grip
and fear has caught my breath

stop

rely

I promised to be patient
I promised I would wait
but still ‘round every corner
I expect to meet my fate
— and I do!

But it’s never happy!
and even if my heart is glad
no memory of me is had
and so we lose our state
— again!

stop

offer

I promised to be patient
I promised I would pray
I promised I would escape
     Samsara’s silly plays
                   (all pleasure, mere name
                      real grasping, suffer, blame)

So each day I practice
through the happy and the sad
and even though the sun’s been shining
my heart feels rain
— am I mad?!

stop

receive

I promised to be patient
I promised to be kind
and so I request blessings
to restore this peace to mind

I know I am resilient
with the Guru at my heart
I know with patient acceptance
I excel at Dharma’s peaceful art

So with blessings in my mind
these delusions I outsmart!
I maintain a stable practice
remembering: no partless part

vacuous oration

              words on words
he flipped the bird
     and entertained
absurdity
       ‘n’ torn
        paper’s frayed
kaleidoscope image
       he is his cage
his father’s father was delayed
       in learning virtue
was the way
       and still today
a family pays

              absurd’s the word
you heard it
       hear it first
              from me
and then find a qualified source
       for I have a message
that demand’s to be bottled and
caught and released
                  that beast, the words on words
you’d rather she’d heard
              thather than the ones you …
wish!!!
              you could amend

[Narrator: *coughs* I hate to bring that up again]

             yet the part demands to be played
and so another family paid
       karma sweet, then karma tart
karma baked in humble pie
       ripens as happiness and
fortunes that fly
       as the reins of wisdom
slap their steeds
       we’ll leave samsara
and all its feasts
       before the bottle rolls on shore
‘fore the greatest battle,
                            raw guts gore
‘fore Dharma is lost forevermore

              for the 11^th is so far away
seeming like an eternity –
       too long to let my family pay
so nonsense verse I offer up
              like empty teacup
                     stainless pot
water boils
              yet is not       hot

for all the teachings yet to come
may each have meaning, every one
and ‘fore this verse starts making sense
              I’ll lose the train of th . . .
                     like I’ve lost cents
a lazy rhyme
              an uneven rhythm
       to trip the orator
              a great let down
       is samsara’s treasure 🤑

he is coming
he is coming
he has come

thank you
thank you
thank you

goodbye