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.
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