Sunday February 15
*
A glimpse up out
across the open sky
to the light of my long day
slight gentle beautiful determined bright one
firmly alone firmly herself
to quietly remind me
that not so far away
for we two
our warm and bright
future day
and to her then to say
to tell of a lake to the north of Tamzhol chu
that roars upon it’s way
through Lhodrak to the Kuru chu
from its beginnings at Shar Kaleb
It’s quiet here though in this place
where the water’s glimmering sheen
as it flows beneath the light tells
to the quiet receptive mind
of the times to come in portents
benign or menacing
All about the birds fly undisturbed
Look gentle one
there are pastures everywhere
with the dark grouped figures of shaggy yaks
speckling the wind blown grass
beneath the open sky
and hot springs from the depths
to ease the cold strained traveller
and abodes given power from the wind
with windmills built here and there
Then along the roaring Tamzhol Chu
through the pass of Shar Khaleb
to a canyon of deeply grooved
and red cut rock as that of Khuyunglung
in hills that rise up from the depths
thrown up as waves upon the sand
and worn through millenia
from the ceaseless course of the mountain wind
Thence to Tsome with a ridge wondrous and grand
Drakmar Dorje Tsenga
five fold red rock peak indestructible
a place of supreme contemplation
of energy drawn from mountains three
rising to the south
abodes of Avalokiteshvara Manjushri
Vajrapani the noble ones of compassion
Once a great master sat at it’s feet as we now do
a king returned to earth
to be given the name of Nyima Ozer
Not as other men was he
but a Terton
a treasure finder
a being of wondrous power
for he was King Trisong Detsen
who had returned again
to rekindle the yak butter light
in the darkness of war and strife
to find the sacred precious text
he’d hidden so long before
as it was prophesied he’d do
perhaps from
the ebb and flow of the Trigu
Tso the lake from which we’ve come
His life is celebrated in murals of beauty
and marvel beside a board of wood
rough hewn as those cut for your loom
smoothed by prostrating pilgrim
worn in humble gratitude
for this gift that he returned
in whose mind it remains safe
the sacred text’s spirit yet lives on
though it’s material returned
to the wind and earth from whence it came
along with the rest of that place’s treasure
through destruction that we know
The temple now to be rebuilt
beneath the attentive gaze
of a lama to here returned
from another life with the wisdom
yet another builder treasure finder
to keep the light alive
Yet even this not so wonderful
to my straining eyes
as your determined beauty
and uplifted patient dignity
this that I see in you
on this cold afternoon
of our winter of necessity
Lotus blossoms rest
upon the window sill
and so we wait
two as one
we our effort
real and lasting
slight gentle
beautiful one
February 10
* courtesy of A Luminous Diamond (Bright) Crystal Show productions.
reference material for the poem is courtesy of the Footprint Tibet handbook by Gyurme Dorje.