on lao tzu ch. 17

DARK AND SILENT (soliloquy)

You’re always dragging my ass out into these bright shiny places you love so much.

Don’t you get it? Truth travels in the dark as well as in the light.

And this noise, this shouting out your various ecstasies. . .

Missing out on silence isn’t my idea of a good time.

And just where, may I ask, did you acquire the need to find spotlights everywhere and to dance in them?

Quiet conversation seems to whisper, in your ear, only of loss; stir your mind’s most profound fears, as though your soul were fragile, ephemeral, about to head for the black holes; to disappear forever.

Don’t you get it? Truth, joy, faith and hope also whisper in the dark; also dwell in the silent places you’re determined to avoid.

The light is lost in itself without darkness, and without them both, we cannot see.

Also, noise and silence need one another, just like I need you and you, I believe and hope, need me.

- don brennan Tao, Ch. 17.

On lao tzu ch. 16

PEACE

When your neck snaps

like an awakening,

Jerking you back as a

cur on a leash about to

roll in something dead,

You are reminded.

Progress does not flow

from wallowing

in a Lazyboy.

You growl in protest.

This world is suffering.

Only emptiness is peace.

- Tao, Ch. 16

on lao tzu ch. 15

LEGENDARY TEACHERS

You might see, from time to time,

one of those profound and subtle

teachers striding carefully, as though

crossing an iced-over stream.

You might notice that she is acutely

alert, as though murderers and thieves

had been reported in the neighborhood.

Yet you might marvel at his courtesy

under duress, as though he were a guest

in your home.

These legendary teachers are themselves

fluid, like plunging waterfalls, yet patient

as hewn stones awaiting a sculptor.

She can often seem dark and mysterious,

an immense cavern beneath the earth,

as opaque as muddy water.

Who can wait without complaint for the

mud to settle? Who can be still until

action is necessary?

Legendary teachers, who need not seek

fulfillment in what is transitory, find

a way to live without clinging

to desire.

- don brennan Tao Ch. 15

on lao tzu ch. 14

EMPTY US

sometimes we creep to the

edge of the void, lean way

over, squint our eyes, and

see nothing.

so we close our eyes and

just listen for some clues,

yet hear nothing.

so we reach way over the

edge, stretch out our arms,

but find nothing to grasp.

that is how we learn to

stand, to turn and to walk

our paths through this

transitory life;

neither seeing, nor hearing,

nor in possession of our own

emptiness.

- don brennan Tao Ch. 13

on lao tzu ch. 13

HOPING FOR SUCCESS

Success and Hope love to dance

at a dizzying pace, like mismatched

ballerinas or underweight strippers

bumping and grinding on a bartop

for five dollar tips.

Failure and Fear are always in the

audience applauding, jeering,

wishing they too might take the

stage one day; get their own

stockings stuffed.

Outside in the cold night air,

the soul of humanity waits

patiently for the show to be

over.

- don brennan, Tao, ch. 13

on lao tzu ch. 12

WHAT SHE SAID

what she said filled my eyes

with too many colors to see,

deafened my ears that were

straining to listen.

she was attempting by her

silence to convince me to

stay by her side after she

dissappears.

what she said strengthened

my desperate heart, drew

my attention to all that

must be left unspoken.

each life means everything

is what she said.

- don brennan TAO ch. 12

Response to Lao Tzu, Chapter 11

BIKE WRECKS

Without emptiness we

would lack, at best,

our three dimensions.

Bike wrecks would be

unavoidable.

Flowers would remain

unarranged.

Left without rooms,

would we simply be

crushed?

Not-being sustains

all that exists,

Does she not?

- don

Response to Lao Tzu, chapter 10

THE STRUGGLE

A mind overrun by monkies, a

Body made rigid by age, an

Inward vision lost in fog, a

Desire to control, shrinking

the soul.

What is to be done?

Surrender.

Response to Lao Tzu, chapter 9

DISTRACTION

This carving knife is dull.

I apologize, and also beg your

Pardon for spilling your tea.

Pehaps I am distracted by

My fear of poverty, or

What you might think of me.

Poet's response to Lao Tzu, Chapter 8

VIOLENCE AND DESIRE

Violence and desire

are not unknown

to one another.

For whatever reasons,

these two sometimes

hang out, have a few

drinks together in our

brains, in our hearts.

Get drunk and

disorderly for their

pleasure in the two

most lavishly decorated

rooms of consciousness.

On such occasions,

violence and desire

like to bully peace and

justice, torment them;

Slap the virtuous prigs

around; force the pair

to seek refuge in deeper,

darker, quieter, simpler

regions of the mind.

Force them to turn for

reassurance, for intimacy

to humility and kindness.

- Tao Ch. 8

POET'S RESPONSE TO LAO TZU, CHAPTER 7

BAD INFLUENCE

The truth can’t die because

she wasn’t born, so she just

hangs around, lively as a

bad influence

Pestering us to recognize a

clue now and then, reminding

us that life is just as long

as it is short

Confusing us with irony and

paradox and other bits of magic

as she scratches the ears of coyotes,

suggesting ways for them to

trick us into waking up.

But we just complain that life is

too hard, so we ignore her advances

and doubt her existence because

We have kids and jobs and taxes,

the country is at war,

The economy’s

a wreck, most of us are poor, so

who needs the truth, and what’s she

ever done for anybody anyway? We

all know how to lie to get by;

Ain’t that the truth?

- don brennan Tao Ch. 7

Poet's response to Lao Tzu, Ch. 6

GREAT MOTHER

Both oceans groan

She moves her hips

The continents drift

Two or three volcanoes

Roar into life

She bites her lip

Great waves rise up

To brush the mountain

Tops with kisses

She screams and reaches

To grip my hand, then

Curses, drenched in sweat

I grit my teeth and

Beg her forgiveness

That’s when she

Laughs at me

For being afraid.

- don brennan CH. 6

Poet's response to Lao Tzu, Ch. 5

AS YET

Spin around and you will see

the good guys

Cranking up their chain saws

sharpening drill bits

loading incendiary bombs

See the good guys pouring fire

from the sky

dropping stunned and silent

trees to their knees

punching leaking oil holes

beneath the seas

Spin around and you will see

how the good guys make us

weep

But do not judge, just meditate

or go to sleep

As yet, we are too

incompetent, some of

our teachers are wont

to preach,

To understand ...

To comprehend the greater

good: the kids at

home, Mom and Dad,

(whom the bankers, now,

have come to own).

Too incompetent, as yet, to

perceive the benign

necessity of keeping global

slave markets free;

The stocks and bonds that

must be sold for "greater

goods", like splintered lumber

to foreign lands.

So, as is brilliant and just,

some teachers walk among

us suggesting, in the interest

of careers? Or is it sanity?

We ought not judge because

we are, as yet

Too blind to see,

Too ignorant to understand.

- don brennan TAO CH. 5