Ryōkan — "As a boy I learned the classics..."

As a boy I learned the classics

but was too lazy to become a Confucian.

As a young man I chased after zen,

but gained no Dharma worth passing on.

Now I live in a hut by a Shinto shrine

and work as the custodian,

sometimes caretaker, sometimes monk.

                                        _____________________

Ryōkan. Between the Floating Mist. trans. by Dennis Maloney and Hide Oshiro. Buffalo, N.Y.: White Pine Press, 2009.

Ink painting by Koshi no Sengai (1895-1958).

Ikkyu: "Nature's Way"

Ikkyu gazes at the mountains. From "Ikkyu Shokoku Monogatari Zue."

The wise heathens have no knowledge;

They just keep their mind continually set on the Way.

There are no big-shot Buddhas in nature,

And ten thousand sutras are distilled in a single song.

                                          ---------------------

Ikkyu, "Nature's Way," in Wild Ways: Zen Poems of Ikkyu, trans. by John Stevens. Buffalo, NY: White Pine Press, 2003.

White Pine Press founder and publisher Dennis Maloney and his wife Elaine are canyon residents who divide their time between Big Sur and New York. Whenever I pick up one of their "Companions for the Journey Series" titles from my bookshelf, the poems I find seem meant to be read right where I'm standing.