Sacred Sects and Shinto Shrine Because of Grief and Woe

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

Imagine living where a street is lined

With temples and with weeping willows, range

Of willows and of temples, life designed

For leaved dendolatry and bonsais strange

In midget shapes and in divinity

Of tiny needles on dwarf god pine,

Where worships of wild saints, infinity

Inside their limbs and potted roots, define

Their jade religion.  Rain comes down the street

Of worshiping umbrellas so that god,

Or Buddhaness retains its godhead neat

And tidy, wet with reverences awed.

  The women bow on baby feet and men

    Do incense genuflects sincere in Zen.

© Phillip Whidden