Sestina: Buddha's Awakening Poem by Richard St. Clair

Before he was enlightened under the tree
He fasted and self-tortured every way.
He had no friends, just fellow ascetics, men
Who ate but one small grain of rice each day.
His body became shriveled to the bone,
His only home the forest and the sky.

The rain and lightning came down from the sky,
So he sought shelter underneath a tree.
A carcass he saw nearby, to the bone
The vultures had already picked away
The flesh entire upon that very day.
He knew death was the destiny which men

All faced as life approached its end: yes, men
Like he, and as his eyes turned toward the sky
He wondered if his time had come that day.
The wind blew savagely and shook the tree.
He pondered to himself, “I’ve lost the way, ”
And sure enough protruded every bone

Of his sad shriveled frame and every bone
As well of those devout ascetic men
Who starved as he did, searching for the way
To find release from suffering. The sky
Burst open, rain fell on his sheltering tree
And soaked his ragged clothing all the day,

The dark-gray clouds extinguishing the day-
Light, and though he was wasted, every bone
In his frail body cried for help. The tree
Said nothing nor did the ascetic men
Who left him to die, when suddenly the sky
Grew bright; a girl fed him, showed him the way

That he would come to call the Middle Way
Between denial and indulgence. Day-
Break, and he saw the truth as if the sky
Itself spoke to the marrow in his bones
And freed him from the extremes of mortal men
While meditating under the Bodhi tree.

Under that tree he found the Middle Way
To free all men from pain: How bright the day!
And not a bone-white cloud was in the sky.