DDCPoetry

  For the first time in a long time I can't find this poem.  It's a shame since the poem itself, without my marks on it, has a good narrative flow to it.  The poem is a back and forth between a roshi and a follower: both trying to figure out what Zen is. "The universe was not made in jest but in solemn / incomprehensible earnest."  The quote by Anne Dillard sets up the whole tone of the poem.  How what is made wasn't to be made fun of, but was made and then made fun of. Like the first tercet: "My roshi tells me not to think / but look at pretty girls and chant: Every beautiful woman is a corpse ."  Humanity, frailty, with a bit of a humorous point of view is taken to the absurd to made fun of.  yes, even pretty girls die, but to think about life that way is very morbid in a funny way. Every beautiful woman is a corpse , My roshi says one koan is enough if if you have a Buddha mind, though one koan will also suffice if you are an idiot: Note how the ros...