This poem is a fig tree, a bowl of sweet and enlightenment

Google Image

 

This poem is a large fig tree,

a witness to the struggles

of a seeker, smoldering within-

whose body, like the last autumn leaf

brown, emaciated, was about to drop off-

the tree could do nothing save being a shelter,

a prayer for this man ablaze in renunciation-

This poem is a Bodhi tree

 

 

This poem is an earthen bowl of payasam*

in the hands of a village maid

who sang a song of the ‘middle-path’

and offered the seeker the delicacy

which the ascetic accepted-

sun and moon rose and set

no manna ever came his way again-

this poem is Sujata’s bowl of sweet-

 

 

This poem is a story of enlightenment

of a prince in his thirties

who wished to conquer desire, disease and death-

he had his ‘rafter broken’,

his ‘ridge pole destroyed’-

his ‘mind came to the end of craving’-

he became Peace himself and a Buddha-

this poem is Man’s enlightenment

 

 

this poem is a sacred tree that saw a seeker transcend

this poem is a bowl of heavenly sweet that led a seeker

this poem is enlightenment a seeker leaves home for

 

 

*milk-rice pudding

The poem is written in Boomerang Metaphor (invented by Hannah Gosselin)

 

Posted for Poetry Pantry #435 @ Poets United

Advertisement