Secular Satori

Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem 

“a chance to live in the eternal world now, in ‘Eternity’s glad sunrise.’ ”   R. H. Blyth,

Zen in English Literature and Oriental Classics p. 328

Through grace or chance we manage life inside

Eternity.  It flashes seldom through

A hidden ordinary moment spied

Unbidden, maybe as occult dawn’s dew

Some morning unexpected or a dusk

That gods would envy.  It is like a glint

That Francis found in fever, or a musk

From Heaven’s throne, or from Nirvana’s hint

That supersedes pure saints.  Eternity

Lies waiting for us in a sunrise made

Of every night and noon, supernity

Compiled from midnights, days — time’s lost crusade.

  He stormed Jerusalem with peace.  We wait

    For visions lacking faith’s blind creedal weight.

~ Phillip Whidden