Love your site, and particularly the poem you wrote for your father.
At the moment I’m beginning to create a site around various aspects of healthy aging. Would it be ok for me to post your poem (with acknowledgements) for the support and pleasure of a trickle of others who might be dealing with grief and also for those poetry lovers who might now have more time to indulge this passion?
Dear Wendy, I’m glad you’ve enjoyed Dharma Road. You are welcome to use any poems of mine that I’ve posted here.
I think it’s great that you are starting a site dealing with various aspects of healthy aging. What a great, interesting, and timely (for us baby boomers) topic! I hope you will let me know how to find it.
This site will be on hiatus, or really retirement, until it is permanently retired when the yearly fee runs out next September. Unfortunately WordPress was just not a friendly format for posting poetry.
It is possible we will start up another Dharma Road on another blog site at some point — a site that would be more poetry friendly. Not sure though. Time will tell.
But, seriously looking forward to visiting your site! Let us know when it happens!
with metta,
♥ Gayle
Thank you for creating this space for dharma poets to connect with one another. I read your call for suggestions for the development of the website so, here goes.
It would be interesting to read interviews of other dharma poets, sanga teachers, who love poetry & writing. It would be interesting to read how they’d answer, “what does writing do” “how does it relate to right speech”
Thank you so much for writing us with your idea. I like it very much. For right now, however, Thanissara and I have just been talking about closing down Dharma Road. Perhaps for repairs, or re-structuring, not really sure. The biggest problem has been that Word Press, which hosts this blog, has a serious problem with re-formatting all the poems we have tried to post — changing the font, the size and style, as well as the line breaks, etc. It’s a bit of a nightmare for poetry, as all of those aspects are important to the totality of the poem.
It just seems that inadvertently I picked the wrong spot to build “Dharma Road” on. It’s simply not sympathetic to poetry.
So, I am about to post a brief letter from me and Thanissara explaining all this. We won’t shut down immediately, so we can hear what people’s responses and suggestions are.
We’ve loved seeing people’s poems and hearing people’s comments. Perhaps we can figure out another place/way to begin again. You know, something like blogger’s beginner’s mind or beginning blogger’s mind. But for now. Word Press is clearly not our right location.
So, we’ll be shutting down soon, re-grouping, and seeing what the next step is.
I wrote this poem when I was a monk while on a long solitary retreat in the woods at Chithurst (I think it was during the vassa in 1994). I don’t remember much about it – I was probably using death as a reflection and must have reached some pretty deep, dark areas of my mind. But I do remember the image on a shaft of light coming through an open window into a dark underground room which looked like a crypt, hence the title.
Dear Dhammiko,
I think I managed to post your poem and explanatory comments on the Home page! Yay! Henceforth, we are asking everyone to send their posts, as they want them to appear, to dharmapoets2@gmail.com. Hopefully this posting process will go smoothly. Thank you and everyone for your patience.
♥ Gayle
at the moment, i think we could copy and paste from here as admin – though Gayle has an email address for submissions – which she will post a notice about – meanwhile – do you feel OK to say a few words about yourself and how the poem emerged – (no worries if you’d rather not at all) to post with your poem on the Home page?
Hi there, a very good idea & good stuff! I just signed in and have been trying to post a poem, but I don’t seem to be able to. How does one do it? Thanks! Dhammiko
Hi Dhammiko,
You’re an “approved” contributor now, so you should be able to post. Go ahead and do it, though it may have to go through some posting process,and may not post immediately. Try! And let’s see what happens. We’re all still learning. Welcome to Dharma Road. Gayle
Ok Gayle, here it is. I am not sure if this is the right place to post is but I can’t see any other way to do it. I hope it works. Thanks. Dhammiko
§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§
the quietude of the sepulchre
to explore
the labyrinthine
cavern
of the mind
is an awesome
thing
but
to come
face to face
with
the demon
that
resides
within the
innermost
chamber
and
contemplate
one’s own death
is terrifying
until
the discovery
is made
that
all the demon
wants is
release
and fear
of death
is nothing
more than
fear
of life
then
diaphanous light
shines through
the quietude
of the sepulchre
Ah, the fruits of the Dhamma–expansion of minds, hearts, spirits
neither here nor there–everywhere/nowhere
landing on this blog site.
Thank you for creating/naming/holding this space for Dharma Road travelers!
Hi Sati, Thanissara and I are in the process of learning to administrate our new blog. Were you not able to see and read the MacDiarmid poem? We received your comment and posted it here. If you submit a poem we will be able to post it for you. There might be a few hour delay, as we are not on here all the time, but hopefully it will all work out, and we’ll get some interesting poetry and comments/conversation going here. Thanks for your interest!
♥ Gayle
Hi T- this looks great! I am probably being really dense- but how do I get to read the poetry and to leave contributions? It’s a fantastic idea- Dhamma seems to flow easily as poetry, rather than articles…a brilliant medium for exchange! Am really enthused by this idea- thanks so much for putting the site together.
Love, Sati xxxxx
Hi Gayle
Love your site, and particularly the poem you wrote for your father.
At the moment I’m beginning to create a site around various aspects of healthy aging. Would it be ok for me to post your poem (with acknowledgements) for the support and pleasure of a trickle of others who might be dealing with grief and also for those poetry lovers who might now have more time to indulge this passion?
Many thanks
Wendy
Dear Wendy, I’m glad you’ve enjoyed Dharma Road. You are welcome to use any poems of mine that I’ve posted here.
I think it’s great that you are starting a site dealing with various aspects of healthy aging. What a great, interesting, and timely (for us baby boomers) topic! I hope you will let me know how to find it.
This site will be on hiatus, or really retirement, until it is permanently retired when the yearly fee runs out next September. Unfortunately WordPress was just not a friendly format for posting poetry.
It is possible we will start up another Dharma Road on another blog site at some point — a site that would be more poetry friendly. Not sure though. Time will tell.
But, seriously looking forward to visiting your site! Let us know when it happens!
with metta,
♥ Gayle
Hi Gayle,
Thank you for creating this space for dharma poets to connect with one another. I read your call for suggestions for the development of the website so, here goes.
It would be interesting to read interviews of other dharma poets, sanga teachers, who love poetry & writing. It would be interesting to read how they’d answer, “what does writing do” “how does it relate to right speech”
Metta,
Unju
Dear Unju,
Thank you so much for writing us with your idea. I like it very much. For right now, however, Thanissara and I have just been talking about closing down Dharma Road. Perhaps for repairs, or re-structuring, not really sure. The biggest problem has been that Word Press, which hosts this blog, has a serious problem with re-formatting all the poems we have tried to post — changing the font, the size and style, as well as the line breaks, etc. It’s a bit of a nightmare for poetry, as all of those aspects are important to the totality of the poem.
It just seems that inadvertently I picked the wrong spot to build “Dharma Road” on. It’s simply not sympathetic to poetry.
So, I am about to post a brief letter from me and Thanissara explaining all this. We won’t shut down immediately, so we can hear what people’s responses and suggestions are.
We’ve loved seeing people’s poems and hearing people’s comments. Perhaps we can figure out another place/way to begin again. You know, something like blogger’s beginner’s mind or beginning blogger’s mind. But for now. Word Press is clearly not our right location.
So, we’ll be shutting down soon, re-grouping, and seeing what the next step is.
With so much metta,
Gayle
great – seems we’re beginning to get the hang of how to do this blog – thanks for the contributions – this is such a lovely way of sharing..
Thank you Gayle!
Ok, here we go.
I wrote this poem when I was a monk while on a long solitary retreat in the woods at Chithurst (I think it was during the vassa in 1994). I don’t remember much about it – I was probably using death as a reflection and must have reached some pretty deep, dark areas of my mind. But I do remember the image on a shaft of light coming through an open window into a dark underground room which looked like a crypt, hence the title.
Dear Dhammiko,
I think I managed to post your poem and explanatory comments on the Home page! Yay! Henceforth, we are asking everyone to send their posts, as they want them to appear, to dharmapoets2@gmail.com. Hopefully this posting process will go smoothly. Thank you and everyone for your patience.
♥ Gayle
Thanks Thanissara. I am still puzzled though as how to post poems in the right section, together with the other posted poems. Any ideas?
at the moment, i think we could copy and paste from here as admin – though Gayle has an email address for submissions – which she will post a notice about – meanwhile – do you feel OK to say a few words about yourself and how the poem emerged – (no worries if you’d rather not at all) to post with your poem on the Home page?
By the way, I am able to read the other poems posted…
you did it Dhammiko! bravissimo! beautiful poem, thank you for sharing it.
♥ Gayle
beautiful poem,
‘the fear of death is nothing more than the fear of life..’
Hi there, a very good idea & good stuff! I just signed in and have been trying to post a poem, but I don’t seem to be able to. How does one do it? Thanks! Dhammiko
Hi Dhammiko,
You’re an “approved” contributor now, so you should be able to post. Go ahead and do it, though it may have to go through some posting process,and may not post immediately. Try! And let’s see what happens. We’re all still learning. Welcome to Dharma Road. Gayle
Ok Gayle, here it is. I am not sure if this is the right place to post is but I can’t see any other way to do it. I hope it works. Thanks. Dhammiko
§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§
the quietude of the sepulchre
to explore
the labyrinthine
cavern
of the mind
is an awesome
thing
but
to come
face to face
with
the demon
that
resides
within the
innermost
chamber
and
contemplate
one’s own death
is terrifying
until
the discovery
is made
that
all the demon
wants is
release
and fear
of death
is nothing
more than
fear
of life
then
diaphanous light
shines through
the quietude
of the sepulchre
Ah, the fruits of the Dhamma–expansion of minds, hearts, spirits
neither here nor there–everywhere/nowhere
landing on this blog site.
Thank you for creating/naming/holding this space for Dharma Road travelers!
Dear me, okay. Thought I was really loosing it for a minute. (Smile)
I don’t really remember leaving a happy face. In fact, I didn’t. Besides, it is only 12:44 here not 3:43 pm. Hmmmmmm.
hi aprita – that was me – Thanissara – helping you get on the blog – i’ve now deleted the happy face -
Hey there, THis is a great idea for a blog site…
Great stuff, looks like an interesting space…
Hi Sati, Thanissara and I are in the process of learning to administrate our new blog. Were you not able to see and read the MacDiarmid poem? We received your comment and posted it here. If you submit a poem we will be able to post it for you. There might be a few hour delay, as we are not on here all the time, but hopefully it will all work out, and we’ll get some interesting poetry and comments/conversation going here. Thanks for your interest!
♥ Gayle
Hi T- this looks great! I am probably being really dense- but how do I get to read the poetry and to leave contributions? It’s a fantastic idea- Dhamma seems to flow easily as poetry, rather than articles…a brilliant medium for exchange! Am really enthused by this idea- thanks so much for putting the site together.
Love, Sati xxxxx
hi Sati – i think you can just post them here – it’d be great to share your contributions and poems – i look forward to it…!