Sacred Blah

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

The pain, the pain, the pain caused Buddha to

Withdraw from lfe, the tawdriness of rows

Of shops in nowhere tows, the pious queue

To plead with Francises and saints, or pose

Some secret sins to gods, or ask for help

At Lourdes or Knock.  He saw that pandits lost

Their way in rituals and couldn’t whelp

Salvation.  Buddha found his Pentecost

Beneath the Bodhi tree.  Its leaves lacked fire.

They offered only calm the color of

The nth degree of peace with no desire.

They offered freedom from the curse of love.

  Illusory the soul and World-Soul,

    So nothingness and numbness are or goal.

~ Phillip Whidden