Pagoda poems Poem by Sukrita Paul Kumar

(Inspired by poems hanging over and around the master pagoda near Hanoi, Vietnam)
play
00:0001:11
nine times over
the word nothingness

emerges again
and yet again
in the twenty-word poem
by the master monk

the dragon, they say,
descends into the sea
searching for meaning
and spewing jewels
jewels that become rocks
with stalactites piercing into
bellies of rocks

columns of light rise
dressed in stunning colours

devils dancing
in step with gods

all in all,
adding to nothingness
and making meaning

*

what is real?

image of the bird
fluttering in the sky
or the one still
in the gushing river

the wavy moon
in the water
or the one above
that is steady

parallel

forever