Poetry 1

01/03/25 14:22 Filed in: Poetry

Poetry Day – One Day Late
Homested Poems
A. ARVIDS GALES
FEB 27, 2025

poem one
he carved a space out of the prairies
shaped it with his will and tortured back
into something resembling the prairie grasses —
whispering sounds driven by unfriendly winds
his legacy a broken rocking chair inside a rotting shed
he once called his home
© alfred gales 2025

his home
he stood with the dumb
wild eyed, frightened look
of an animal facing its death
at the slaughterhouse
the open front door threw a long shadow
inside the house an emptiness, she left
for the graveyard before him
dressed in her best black dress
grey hair tucked into a black bonnet
he cried
and cried
and cried for him, for her
for his heart, a single slender stalk of grain
trapped beneath a stone
© alfred Gales 2025

Old Man Dying

prairie dreamtime
a touch, a brush past cheek
to wrist, a feather’s caress
an insect wings’ soft ripple
standing on a rooftop’s edge, almost falling
wonders how he arrived, looks skyward
her solemn face
a gliding eagle
a screaming moth
silent as the silk smooth rains
hot against his waking cheeks
his burning eyes find ceiling
his mouth wide open grasping air
his heaving chest
gripped beneath granite stone
© alfred gales 2025

Dreamtime

spring broke early this year
spring broke early this year
calves growin’, colt born, quarter plowed
looks fine to seed
sonofabitch
we got nothin’ to complain about
© alfred gales 2025

Calf & Colt

(Thanks again to ChatGPT, with a little help from a friend of Mac products & iMac desktop & ultimately that who creates but remains forever unknowable – unless – you start creating poems of your own. To paraphrase Ezra Pound, Poets are the antenna of a race.
Have no Care, send poems to Bear, my Latvian, Animal Spirit Guide, same as First Nations,
to galesalfred157@gmail.com
Self espouses decent pedigree: University of Alberta Creative Writing classes with names such as Atwood, W.O. Mitchell, Dorthy Livesay, Rudy Wiebe. et al. Add 20 years of teaching and finally being smart enough to leave while still your enough to fail miserably/laughingly; yet succeed royally/joyfully at Meta-Stuff & finding enough time to take 1 or 2 or 3 poems of yours and do a brief constructive analysis.
To quote Gollum, “Truuust me! Send poems to galesalfred157@gmail.com.
If you want a personal evaluation on Zoom contact me at same email and we’ll set something up but it will cost you.
Go to website https://www.consequences.life/ to see what we're all about.
Alternate link to send your poetry for analysis: https://www.consequences.life/page-2/
To Leave a Comment, go here. To Become a Member with Benefits, go Here.

Tags: Poetry, Writing, Submit, Meta, Ezra Pound

Open Suco Letter

24/01/25 08:48 Filed in: Unborn Mind

Open Letter Sent to Suco
Suco,
Came to our meeting last Wednesday with few expectations. Thought perhaps i could match the breadth & depth of my experience with the width & depth of yours.
Allow me to use an Alberta, red-neck, cowboy phrase; unfortunately/fortunately, looks like i brought a knife to a gunfight, meaning i soon realized your experience/knowledge was/is well beyond mine.
You were very kind, very older sisterly: you peeled a lychee then fed it to me. Explaining the element of Dharma beyond the Suttas as not luck but was another law of Dharma. That was like peeling the lychee (i began to grasp/experience the implications immediately); then, giving me Bankei Roshi was like popping the lychee into my mouth.
Simply put, am grateful, very grateful: Three kowtows before you.
Took me a long time to put the experience into words. i had a fuzzy but background experience of the unborn Buddha Mind which i lived with for many years. Found that other Masters, like me, were not satisfied with their experience until they ran into the koan, “No body; No Mind”.
Struggled with the koan for many years. until you, explaining the Dharma as not luck, started brining the never born, all illuminating, Buddha Mind into full focus. Adding Bankei Roshi an incredibly unexpected bonus.
Now, fully live, “No body: No mind”, but add to it “Have body: Have mind”. See/experience as clear as day.
Gassho with deep bows hands folded in prayer bowing toward you,
In Meta,
al

Tags: unborn mind, slef-realization, Meta, Meta-Siritual, Buddhism, Bankai, spiritual, Buddha

Total Freedom

17/01/25 16:10 Filed in: Unborn Mind

"We shall not cease from exploration And the end of all our exploring Will be to arrive where we started And know the place for the first time. . ." (poem continues)
Yes, i arrived from the place i'd started and knew the place for the first time. Knew Home! Knew: beyond, beyond beyond. Read More…

Tags: unborn mind, Buddha, Buddhism, slef-realization, Tao, The Way, Roshi, First Nations, Meta, Adept, Bankai, eBook, spiritual, Meta-Siritual