To begin ...

As the twentieth century fades out
the nineteenth begins
.......................................again
it is as if nothing happened
though those who lived it thought
that everything was happening
enough to name a world for & a time
to hold it in your hand
unlimited.......the last delusion
like the perfect mask of death

Monday, November 29, 2010

The Treasures of Dunhuang: Performance Version

[1]

a faceless buddha
.

a black buddha
.

buddhas with silver mustaches
& chin hairs
.

three transvestite buddhas
.

buddha with heads
around his head –
dozens of whirling heads
.

2000 buddhas
.

crouching buddha –
slits for eyes –
looks sleepy
.

a buddha with a dozen faces
& a thousand hands with eyes
.


Buddha holds a fern –
he wears a scabbard
& the scabbard grows a hand
.

rays stream from buddha’s eyes
– or tears
.

eyes wide in terror
open anguished mouth with fangs
he holds a dish with flaming ryes
but haloed

can this be buddha too?
.

thin buddha
starving buddha

sitting hand to chin
& smiling


[2]

a meditating buddha
a practicing buddha
a preaching buddha
an enlightened buddha
a thinking buddha

a musing buddha
a performing buddha
a didactic buddha
an irradiated buddha
a pragmatic buddha

an absentminded buddha
a fabricating buddha
an authoritative buddha
a radioactive buddha
an obstinate buddha

an oblivious buddha
a counterfeit buddha
an imperative buddha
a degenerate buddha
a disobedient buddha

a paralyzed buddha
a vicarious buddha
a tyrannical buddha
an apostate buddha
an anarchical buddha

an anarchical buddha
a disobedient buddha
an obstinate buddha
a pragmatic buddha
a thinking buddha

an apostate buddha
a degenerate buddha
a radioactive buddha
an irradiated buddha
an enlightened buddha

a tyrannical buddha
an imperative buddha
an authoritative buddha
a didactic buddha
a preaching buddha

a vicarious buddha
a counterfeit buddha
a fabricating buddha
a performing buddha
a practicing buddha

a paralyzed buddha
an oblivious buddha
an absentminded buddha
a musing buddha
a meditating buddha


[3]

a buddha behind bars
.

black buddha face
with marble eyes
.

five bodhisattvas
in a row
each with a flower
.

how big this buddha’s hands are
.

buddha’s palms
lie open
waiting for stigmata
.

two buddhas sit together
one without a forearm
one without a hand
.

guardians
with knotted muscles
on their chests

a lion face
upraised
& baying

buddha
like a warrior
in armor
.

a giant painted
buddha

his hands that look
like feet

his feet
gargantuan

push past the garment’s
fringes

beneath the image of
a dragon

& a snake
.

the buddha on the right
is dark with age

an old man’s face
& bald

what does he know of man’s fate
or of woman’s?
.

beyond the door
buddha lies dying
a choir of mourning monks
behind him
.

a paradise of buddhas

everlasting bliss

[The lines & stanzas, above, are a shortened & reconstituted version, intended for performance, of the full series, “Treasures of Dunhuang” that are part of my larger gathering, China Notes & the Treasures of Dunhuang,” published by Ahadada Books in 2006. What overwhelmed me. after a visit to the 100 or so caves of Dunhuang filled with Buddhist art & writings & located in the Gobi Desert, was the surprising twist given to images that we thought of as familiar – much like images of Jesus when one sees them in out-of-the-way regions of the Christian world. I had long had in mind, & more so recently, perceptions about the nature of poetry enunciated by poets like Novalis – “The art of estranging in a given way, making a subject strange and yet familiar and alluring, this is romantic poetics” -- & referential too, I thought, to how we come at poetry today.

[A traditional version of Buddha images -- equally or more surprising -- can be found in the Poems and Poetics posting for August 5, 2008. (J.R.)]

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

"I thought,how we come to poetry today."

same way as 10,000 years ago... in a cave
shadows/images on a (rock) wall thrown there by the Fire Light
the fire the cave the ...'thinking'
makes it so that subject and object are same
then and/as now?

(if you 'get' my dripht)

Kokkie-san