Dr. Geoffrey Williams - Poems & Philosophy
News:
Poems written for and about me
Poems written for and about me
ii
Evening lengthens widens darkness
spreads and you
imbibing feel its shadow distance
drifting as we talk
We listen to litotes lilting
round your discontent
its singsong voice your voice
concealing appalled at simple skill
And all attention I
feel fascination cold on
ransom words mark a discreet
duplicity as this I write
S. J. Thomas
Norwich 2001
always dreaming...
petals float
just below the surface
like those carefully refined
dreams of yours
do you know
that reaching them means getting wet?
do you know
what water is?
& if you did
would you still go swimming?
S. T'Rula
Oxford, December 2001
(extracts from: Essential Zen by Kazuaki Tanahashi & Tensho David Schnieder, New Jersey: Castle Books, 1994)
The stone bridge
A monk challenged Zhaozhou, "I've been hearing about Zhaozhou's stone bridge for a long time. Now that I'm here, all I see is this log."
Zhaoahou said, "You see the log, but you don't see the stone bridge."
The monk asked, "What is the stone bridge?"
Zhaozhou said, "It lets donkeys cross; it lets horses cross."
From Blue Cliff Record
Yuanwu Kequin
(China, 1300)
On discouragement
A student asked Soen Nakagawa during a meditation retreat, "I'm very discouraged. What should I do?"
Soen replied, "Encourage others."
From 33 Fingers: A Collection of Modern American Koans
Michael Wenger
(San Francisco: Clear Glass Press, 1994)
There was a young lady called Mandy,
Who looked just like Mahatma Gandhi,
She'd a face like a prune,
And was bald as the moon
And her legs were quite suitably bandy!
There was a young girl from Peru,
Who dressed up like Pandit Nehru,
The idea was hot,
But the costume was not,
'Cos her loin cloth was strangely see through!
From a collection of many such gems by
S. J. Thomas & G. A. Williams
Norwich and Amsterdam
2000-2002