When East Melds West

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

The Eastern Realms of Zen want light to be

The goal, satori’s glow, Enlightenment.

They want the temple nuns and monks to see

The Bodhi in the unrhymed firmament,

Pink lotuses in heavens of beams.  The West

Of Zen prefers the lack of firmness in

The mind, the unresolved, division best

Religious thought, a sacredness with sin,

Illusion, not Enlightenment, preferred.

Mayoi* and satori are the goal

Together, lotus leaves gone brown and stirred

With perfect pink.  These all reveal the Whole.

  Enlightenment’s illusion—that is Zen.

    This makes full sense in women and in men.

~ Phillip Whidden

* 迷い