Friday

Poetry by Mark Frutkin

A Word from Mark

These poems have not been published previously. They have a particular influence from my experience with meditation and the Shambhala path. I studied poetry with Allen Ginsberg when I attended Naropa Institute in Boulder, Colorado in Summer of 1976, where I also studied with other writers and heard a number of public talks by Chögyam Trungpa, Rinpoche. I have been a Buddhist meditator and a writer since the early 1970s, served as the head of the Ottawa Shambhala Centre for several years, and was appointed as the Warrior of the Centre several years ago. I have taught poetry at numerous locations: Carleton University (Ottawa), Ottawa Shambhala Centre, and Naropa Institute in Halifax. If anyone is interested in contacting me, I can be reached at [email protected]. I hope you enjoy these poems appearing in the Shambhala Times.

Without Emptiness

Without emptiness

there would exist

no spaces between fingers

or toes

leaving us with useless lumps

for hands and feet

Without emptiness

there could be no life,

for the womb

is an empty space

within each female

where life begins

Without the emptiness of space

there would be nowhere for planets

to travel or stars to move,

they would be like stones

stuck in ice,

the hunter Orion would be locked

in a cave, hibernating

with the bear known as Ursa Major

Without emptiness

nothing could happen

because there would be no space

for the poem to arise

for the lungs to breathe.

Without the emptiness of the blank page

the poem could never be written down,

without the silence in the air

the poem could never be heard.

Without emptiness

There would be no life.

Mixing Mind with Space

In meditation we say

we mix our mind with space

Blue sky

Black hole

Deep valley

Hollow mountain

Thoughtless afternoon

Dreamless sleep

Emptied drawer

Empty pocket

Car out of gas

by the side of the road

Dead horse

beside the trail

The non-number zero

A million, billion, trillion zeros

Inner ear

Outer space

Mute man

Blind woman

One minus one

One trillion minus one trillion

Blank page

Invisible ink

Leap freely

from the towering period

at the end of the poem.

Aphorism

The only way to feel 

completely grounded 

is to fully accept 

groundlessness.

Gap

When the breath

goes out and dissolves

there’s a gap

before the next breath

is drawn in –

that gap is called

the bardo of the breath.

White Butterfly

Frantic, chaotic

the flight of the white butterfly

unstuck, unlike the leaf

stuck to its branch, its tree,

unlike the cloud pushed

in a particular direction

by prevailing winds,

unlike the stone

which moves not at all

but simply is worn away

while sinking into earth –

the white butterfly is driven,

unable to make any decision,

a bit of living trash

flicking this way and that

so like our all too 

human minds.

Deep Simplicity

In Deep Simplicity

simply breathe.

Breathing in

is the world breathing out,

breathing out is the world

breathing in.

It’s that simple.

The Space that Allows

Sky is simply the space that allows

the arising and passing

of sun, moon, stars,

clouds, all celestial phenomena,

comets, lightning

and the flight of crows,

starlings and eagles,

sky is the space that allows

Eternity is the space that allows 

all times: seconds, minutes, hours,

days, weeks, months,

years, lifetimes, centuries

and millennia,

eternity is the space 

that allows time

Silence is the space that allows 

sound: words in conversation, 

songs, trill of warbler,

caw of crow,

crash, lightning, shouts, 

wash of sea, trickle of creek,

silence is the space

that allows sound

The human body is the space that allows:

the empty stomach makes room 

for the food to sustain life,

the empty mind

allows clarity, imagination

and the arising of new ideas,

the womb is the space that allows

the fertilized egg to grow

into new life

And finally, love is the space that allows

all emotion, 

the wide-open heart that accepts 

anger, joy, depression, 

reconciliation, relief,

elation, happiness,

sadness, patience and empathy,

love is the space

that allows all emotion.

***

Mark Frutkin lives in Ottawa and has published 19 books, including fiction, non-fiction, and four collections of poetry, in Canada, the US, Britain, and in seven foreign translations. 

His 2006 novel, Fabrizio’s Return (Knopf), won the Trillium Award and the Sunburst Award, and was a finalist for the Commonwealth Book Prize (Canada/Caribbean). His novel, Atmospheres Apollinaire (Porcupine’s Quill) was a finalist for the GG award for fiction. And finally, two of his collections of poetry have been finalists for the Ottawa Book Award. Further information on his books can be found on his website at www.markfrutkin.com

Mark came to Canada (his mother’s birthplace) as a draft resister in 1970 during the Vietnam War and lived for nine years in western Quebec in a log cabin with no electricity and no running water. Having grown up in Cleveland, Ohio and attended Loyola University in Chicago, his unusual experiences in the Canadian bush sparked his interest in poetry and it was in the cabin where he first started writing. He hopes you enjoy his work.