(#1)
I Can See Your House from Here
Time and Time again,
those who sought in vain
to capture my attention
were those who tried to
talk me down from off
the ledge.
It never worked.
It never will.
understanding not
what it is that brings me
to this lofty perch.
Observing what goes
unexamined by
those all too preoccupied
by thoughts beyond control
within lives run by
thinking constantly…
Minds chattering so loudly
they cannot hear their feelings
even if their souls should speak,
…I can see your house from here.
Out on this ledge
thin as Here and Now
The Music is so very loud
you cannot hear your thinking mind;
feeling is all that
you can do.
I did not come up here to jump,
for I am here to dance
out on this high edge.
Do not try to talk me down
from off my ledge.
Come up and join me
in my special place
where my Music never ends.
We can dance here day and night
keeping warm in Winter,
dry us after rains of Spring,
naked jaybirds if we please
tans celebrating Summer sun,
we can dance until the Fall.
Namasté
नमस्ते
Chazz Vincent
05/27/201
(#2)
Tears of Sorrow, Tears of Joy…
(I just can’t stop crying).
Ten Thousand days and nights;
the best of luck
and worst of judgement
compounding
exhilarating risks,
great moments of defeat
and success alike
all much too real,
my soul too tender
to allow
them close enough
to either wound,
or fill me up
with too much pride,
I anesthetized myself
with jaded sarcasm,
cynical perspectives
and aggressive intimidations
fueled by
unrealistic expectations
within a life so privileged
as to be blind
to the misfortune
born to others
or to
those caused to others
by my own selfish means
by which I achieved
almost everything that I desired.
Dead friends, dead lovers,
dead family members,
dead spouses
and dead pets alike;
broken promises,
hearts and dreams…
accolades, applause, abuse,
admiration and awards as well,
early on I realized
that if I opened up that door
of emotion…
to feel
for just the briefest
interval of Planck time,
that like Pandora’s Box
once opened,
would make no difference if
left opened wide or closed,
I would never be the same
and so began
my willing exile…
my disconnect from any emotions.
It would be easier to put the smoke
back into the cigarette
than to forget
what I had felt and seen
or in some cases,
even where or who I was
when I had been….
whatever it was
that I had been….
Endless rituals.
no matter whether
hero or villan,
felon, friend,
or fiend,
the method of my madness
played out
upon whatever stage
it was that I was going through…
Until the End.
Another ten thousand days and nights ago
(yet at the very same time)
I started down another path
that would lead me to
what was called
The Bodhisattva Way.
When what had seemed
to be parallel lines
did finally cross,
both Joy and Sorrow
Desire and Disappointment,
Lust and Despair
were everywhere,
no matter where I looked.
Devoid of blinders, filters, masks or muzzles,
the brilliance of the simplest of pleasures,
joys, or indulgences
were as blindingly, brilliantly intense
as new vision
to one who has never seen.
Ignorance, greed, and hatred
once taken for granted
as “part of doing business”
now made me gasp
as if to take my breath away.
Vices that had once been
my stock and trade
were now reviled
and regretted
when recognized in others…
as tears of shame
fall to the earth,
that bleeds
with every step I take.
I had lived in the camp of the enemy
and learned his methods,
but could no longer make
his ways as mine.
There was a time when
no matter how much I got,
nothing was ever good enough…
Now almost nothing
is plenty.
No longer fettered and blinded by privilege
or jaded by remorseless greed
and narcissistic self-indulgence,
the simplest of kindnesses or joys
now give me pause, as if to choke
as I am overcome
by pure and simple Compassion,
Lovingkindness
and Empathy,
once overlooked,
now the most precious
of experiences,
as Love is on the lips
of every blade of grass
that sings
to the Song of the Wind
as it blows through the trees
drowning out the voices
of all the teachers,
Bodhisattvas and Buddhas alike.
Tears of Joy,
Tears of Sorrow…
Are they different
or
are they the same?
In the ever-present
never-present,
present moment,
we ride the three-hundred
mile an hour train,
where only your mind is moving
and before thoughts,
before words,
you already know.
Namasté
नमस्ते
Chazz Vincent
Friday, the Thirteenth
of October, 2017
(# 3)
Just One Thought
Just One Thought
Can spoil a lifetime
of Present Moments;
One Mind,
One Thought,
One Moment
Can drown out
All the voices
of all the
Bodhisattvas,
बोधिसत्त्व
All of the
Patriarch’s,
पत्रिअर्च्ह्स्
and
All the Buddhas.
Bउद्धस्
It can obfuscate
all Wisdom
all Instinct
both felt and known
(rather than
postulated,
elucidated,
and pronounced)
within
a mind obsessed
with
narrations,
utterances,
labels,
and schemes
designed to seduce
your attentions
away
from
what is obvious
only
to those
who possess
Mu-Shin
unclouded by
Duality,
Fear,
or
Suffering.
One Thought
destroys
the Present Moment,
which neither leaves
nor arrives;
in so doing
it destroys
everything.
One thought,
conspicuous in its absence,
and
obvious
in its utterance;
creating something
out of nothing
when Nothing was
all that was needed
in the absence
of
a Witness
silently observing
a witness…
bearing witness to
the truths
that cannot be spoken
or comprehended
by the mind.
One Thought
Within
One Mind
for One
Moment
is
all it takes
to create
All
the suffering
in all the World
in the
Here and Now
which is
all there is,
ever has been,
or will be
…forever….
Namaste
नमस्ते
(I bow to the divine within you.)
Chazz Vincent
02/04/2017
(# 4)
11/11
You have seen me many times before…
before there ever was a You and Me,
born on wings of love
like a night bird
flying low and fast;
a bird of prey,
a flash of light
on the horizon
or peeking around
into the corner of your eye.
I was with you
when you first kissed
that all too familiar stranger
so long ago, so far away…
dusk creeping in
as sunlight tiptoed out
through an open window,
sweat beaded on your upper lip;
a second-floor room
in Cape May,
back when you thought
me dangerous…
or at the Chrysanthemum
in Key West
on our seventy-two hour
honeymoon
where we recruited
our willing hostages.
Who am I?
I am I
I am You
I am We
I am everywhere
I am nothing
I am nowhere in particular
but Here and Now.
I will still be there
long after there is any You and Me
just as I am here right now.
في مكان حيث أن الكلمات لا معنى لها
(In a place where words have no meaning,)
All things return unto the One,
And when the One
at last returns to Zero
there will be no more suffering,
with no one left
to mourn
our passing.
Namasté
नमस्ते
Chazz Vincent
November 11th, 2017
(# 5)
Sayonara Tsukimono Suji No Kimi…. さようなら私の最愛の白い魔女
No more “I love you”…?
No more bickering.
No more ultimatums.
No more angry words.
No more expectations.
No more disappointments.
The look in your eyes
betrays what you cannot
bring yourself
to say…
to pull the trigger
and end the suffering
between us,
yet you’ll never respect me
unless I do
what you cannot.
Its one thing to love
yet quite another to be in love.
As deeply as I am wounded,
I thank you for that.
I was born
to write torch songs
and you shall be my
most cherished inspiration.
That’s why they call it a
CRUSH…
When you meet,
it takes your breath
away,
the same as it does
when it’s over.
Nothing else
makes me feel more alive,
or more aware…
from the first anticipation
to the last anguish
of the horse latitudes
and doldrums
that slowly
led us here.
After all,
what good is all this loneliness
without the angst of solitude?
Nothing awakens
our survival instincts
like the feel
of
Death’s hot breath
upon our necks
and nothing
spawns entropy, decay and oblivion
like the stench
of complacency.
With nowhere else to go
for either of us,
the prison we have built
of our disillusionment
is
as real as our inability
to walk away.
With no where else to go,
our love
has turned into an ocean
of poisonous disappointment
in which we drown
each day.
I feel compassion for
your anger,
resentments,
and sorrow,
but I can no longer
join you in them.
When one door closes,
another opens,
which is how it will stay…
I’ll even leave the light on…
if it is meant to be
you will thank me
for that
one day.
No more “I love you’s?”
Hardly…
I will love and keep you
in my heart forever,
but I refuse to always be the first one
to say the words…
It’s just too much
like shouting
down a well.
So kiss me goodbye.
Just pretend
I’m not here…
someone
that you don’t love at all
so you won’t have to resent
that we are both still here.
We have learned
to treat strangers and pets
with more kindness
than we allow each other
and it is our shared expectations
unfulfilled
that has brought about
this despair in ourselves,
who are the only ones
whom we can blame
now that I
can no longer
bring myself
to sing the songs
that only make me cry….
Sayonara Tsukimono Suji No kimi….
さようなら私の最愛の白い魔女
(Goodbye My Beloved White Witch)
Namasté
नमस्ते
Chazz Vincent
09/18/2016
