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#deathpoems — Public Fediverse posts

Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #deathpoems, aggregated by home.social.

  1. Memento mori.

    Four ways of drawing death, and one #haiku

    With sunrise comes light
    and the quotidian burden
    of being alive.

    #deathPoems #micropoetry #life #death #mementoMori #calligraphy #zen

  2. I long for people—
    then again I loathe them:
    end of autumn.

    Chogo (d. 1806)

    Chogo was, in at least one aspect, my soulmate.

    #haiku #micropoetry #deathPoems #life #death #zen #autumn

  3. It lights up
    as lightly as it fades:
    a firefly.

    Chine (d. 1688)

    This poem was composed by her brother when Chine passed away. She was 28 years old.

    #haiku #micropoetry #deathPoems #life #death #zen #firefly #siblings #sister

  4. Of late the nights
    are dawning
    to plum-blossom white.

    Buson (d. 1783)

    This is such a lovely poem.

    The word “akaru”, here translated as “dawn”, means bright, to suggest the way the sky lightens at dawn. The kanji for “akaru” 明 is a sun (日) next to a moon (月) (the brightest things in the sky!) but in this poem, I like to imagine, also the transition from night to day.

    #haiku #micropoetry #deathPoems #life #death #zen #dawn #light #sun #moon

  5. I raise the mirror of my life
    Up to my face: sixty years.
    With a swing I smash the reflection—
    The world as usual
    All in its place.

    Taigen Sofu (d. 1555)

    #haiku #micropoetry #deathPoems #life #death #zen

  6. My sword leans against the sky.
    With its polished blade I'll behead
    The Buddha and all of his saints.
    Let the lightning strike where it will.

    Shunpo Soki (d. 1496)

    #haiku #micropoetry #deathPoems #life #death #zen

  7. He who comes knows only his coming
    He who goes knows only his end.
    To be saved from the chasm
    Why cling to the cliff?
    Clouds floating low
    Never know where the breezes will blow them.

    Sengai Gibon (d. 1837)

    #haiku #micropoetry #deathPoems #life #death #zen

  8. To hell with the wind!
    Confound the rain!
    I recognize no Buddha.
    A blow like the stroke of lightning—
    A world turns on its hinge.

    Nampo Jomyo (d. 1308)

    #haiku #micropoetry #deathPoems #life #death #zen

  9. In all the kingdom southward
    From the center of the earth
    Where is he who understands my Zen?
    Should the master Kido himself appear
    He wouldn't be worth a worn-out cent.

    Ikkyū (d. 1481)

    Kido was a Chinese Zen master who Ikkyū considered an espiritual forebear. Ikkyū understood the wisdom of finding his own path: if the Buddha had stood on the way to illumination, Ikkyū would have chopped his head off.

    #haiku #micropoetry #deathPoems #life #death #zen

  10. Three and seventy years
    I've drawn pure water from the fire—
    Now I become a tiny bug.
    With a touch of my body
    I shatter all worlds.

    Ingo (d. 1281)
    #haiku #micropoetry #deathPoems #life #death #zen

  11. I was born into this world
    I leave it at my death.
    Into a thousand towns
    My legs have carried me,
    And countless homes—
    What are all these?
    A moon reflected in the water
    A flower floating in the sky
    Ho!

    Gizan Zenrai (d. 1878)

    #haiku #micropoetry #deathPoems #life #death #zen

  12. Bury me when I die
    beneath a wine barrel
    in a tavern.
    With luck
    the cask will leak.

    Moriya Sen'an (d. 1838)

    #haiku #micropoetry #deathPoems #life #death #zen

  13. Mount Fuji's melting snow
    is the ink
    with which I sign
    my life's scroll,
    "Yours sincerely."

    Kashiku (17th or 18th century)

    #haiku #micropoetry #deathPoems #life #death #zen

  14. I try to find how I can keep going.

    For me a huge part of keeping going is to try and change things for the better.

    Zen haiku has interesting and stark contrasts between the beauty and the ugly.

    #Zen #Haiku #ZenDeathPoems #DeathPoems
    #SocialCollapse

    @dharma
    @dhamma