Sunday May 1
*
A glimpse
forth toward top of the steep climb
to the leading light of my long day
slight gentle beautiful determined bright one
patiently making her way
she firmly alone firmly herself
to quietly remind me
that not so far away
for she I we two
our warm and bright future day
and to her then to say to tell
of the temple of Batang Chode
And the groan of creaking timbers
above the crackling blazing
roar of the fire
then the crash as they fall among the flames
the sparks that fly
the smell of burning paint and silk
the muffled swish as the prayer banner
tangkhas flutter down to the blazing earth
Out across the Batang Jakhyung valley
in the cold mist of another day
smoke curls from burned
burnt stubs that but yesterday
was the flowing waving gold
of barley in the wind
For the Chinese army
of Chao Erh Feng has come
Tibetan land to claim
from Kongpo where the Brahmaputra flows
to Dartsedo in the east
it to be called Xikang
a province of the empire
of Manchu Emperors and Empresses
For nine years the war goes on
destruction in it's wake
but in the end Tibetans thrust
the Manchu from Tibetan land
and the ruins stand
silent beneath a drizzling rain
waiting to be rebuilt again
the sounds of laughter
the grunt of yak
brightly adorned
pulling the plow again
the chanting as the steady pull
raises timber and stone
the green of barley
newly risen above the fertile earth
Far in the distance
come yaks and horses
across the plain
from Lhassa have they come
to the Batang Chode newly built
they struggle as they have
over the long weeks before
to stand before Tibetans there
worn hands profer with quiet smiles
great bundle wrapped in coarse
yak cloth
from his holiness they say
as brilliantly it rises
a wondrous Tangkha
into the sky
Look beautiful one
Batang Chode stands here still
through it's high gate we pass
to courtyard where
designs of Sokpo Taktri
Mongolian leading a Tiger
parade before our view
within its assembly hall
images faded yet still plain to see
a thousand images
of glowing red Amitayus
hold aloft the elixir
of long sustained life
and a thousand figures
of Shakyamuni Buddha of the present time
gaze out
from the inner sanctum
beside Tsongkhapha and his practitioners
that look across the space
toward a stair
that rises up just beyond the outside wall
to the Jampa Lhakhang
to where Maitreya
Buddha of the future aeon
beckons out to us
formed by the sculptor's hand
but a few years ago
for the Tibetan faith goes on
All this not so wonderful
to my straining eyes
as your determined beauty
and swift uplifted grace
that endures with patient dignity
this that I see in you
beneath the open sky
on this afternoon
of our spring of working
and waiting
and weaving
Lotus blossoms rest
upon the window sill
and so we wait
two as one
we our effort
real and lasting
slight gentle
beautiful one
April 27
* courtesy of A Luminous Diamond (Bright) Crystal Show productions.
reference material for the poem is courtesy of the Footprint Tibet handbook by Gyurme Dorje.