I glance to the left. His eye swivels in its socket. His long arm along mine tugs softly as if to say: Go on. Then the suckers release, the ligula stroking my hand, the arm returning to the others in a lazy eight  above the cushion.   His eye swivels forward,  his body a mottled on-and-off … More Dharma Poem: Teaching a Cephalopod to Sit

I’ve been invited to Mars. I’m excited.  What shall I wear? I called my brother.  He’ll come, too, despite being a geologist attached to this planet.  So am I.  Gravity’s big fan. I like when I sit down I don’t go up and don’t float off like a balloon while stepping on grass.   Still, it’s … More Dharma Poem: Invitation to Mars

Dear one Accept this bouquet of dew, Bubbles, dreams & clouds Tied loosely with a cobweb Full of life Self-effacing & sudden Incautious Fugitive as air No vase can contain it No time capture all it says So wear it like a flower In your hair and know My humanity adorns it Every brushed-away tear … More Dharma Poem: Dew, Bubbles, Dreams & Clouds from the Diamond Sutra

Even before Buddha became Buddha A dragon stood guard Magnificent creature Unnecessary precaution Intent on austerities Danger comes from within Indecision  Self-loathing Stiffening of will Nothing dragons can do Except wait with sad eyes Until the mind-propelled Whirlwind blows over What use a dragon’s roar That rattles the heavens Scuttles the clouds Pours rain? Even … More Dharma Poem: Had I Been the Dragon

(for Jake) Suppose you don’t know who you are or where the hell you fit in the universe.   Suppose that makes you act like your father and you get caught in a body you mistake for your own. You reach out, feeling grumpy, for something to satisfy, skin, eyes, nose wanting contact:   food, fame, sex, … More Dharma Poem: Suppose — A Rhapsody on the 12 Nidanas

(for sangha) Who is wholehearted? Knights slaying dragons? Disentangling maidens? Percival?  Launcelot? Bright-eyed, pure? Right Arm of God? Who radiates from within Full of fire  UnQuixotic? Who knows how to kneel? If you hold back you can’t be captain. You need conviction to raise a sword. Captain Whole Heart is no fool. She who forswears … More Dharma Poem: Captain Whole Heart

I get it BodhisattvasRUs same bodies same minds without the scars or the hooks of attachment 6 senses alive unhampered by this way or that shoveling sidewalks offering food me you bodhisattva no difference except for the glow the being-here-now that throws open the world © January 26, 2016 | Carolyn White

My husband was dying.  But we didn’t know it–not yet. Daily I drove to the hospital. Walking the parking lot I focused on breathing until I turned into five streams: form and feelings, perceptions, volition and consciousness. The Buddha called them skandas.   I knew them as streams pouring from me, shifting, subtle, nothing to sort … More Dharma Poem: The Five Skandas