Please Bodhisattva

For All Allen Ginsbergs Everywhere Oh Bodhisattva I’m a slacker Ach Bodhisattva My mind sometimes is so many-pointed Dear Bodhisattva I’ve grown weary of always having an angle Woe is me Bodhisattva My middle name…

On Diane di Prima (Again)

for Lindsey Trout Danielle Mackey Katie Madges Katie Consamus Magan Wiles New Yorkers all   As some of you know, I have recently taken to the writing of Diane di Prima. You know this because…

The Typewriter Is Holy

Later this summer at Cafe Ventana, I’ll be facilitating a reading group of the new book, The Essential Ginsberg.  I was just rereading Bill Morgan’s history,  The Typewriter is Holy: The Complete, Uncensored History of the Beat…

Library Pick-me-up

After an invigorating brainstorming visit with Courtney Barrett at Kayak’s I headed home down Lindell then remembered I had books to pick up Allen Ginsberg’s Buddhist Poetics and Twayne’s revised edition of Allen Ginsberg Waiting…

He Would Have Never Gotten Tenure

The thing is to get under the students’ skin and arouse enough enthusiasm that they get under their own skin.  This means allowing yourself to be yourself in class. My own best teachers were WC…

Don’t Be Swayed

Dear Bella If you’ve practiced lojong previously Then you can practice lojong now This morning I woke up Thinking of you And one of my favorite slogans “Don’t be swayed by external circumstances” So simple!…

Poetry Is Endless

I keep in one file  poems I love It’s my own anthology I read & reread poems at least a half hour every day I have many more to add… (Like Li Ch’ing-Chao, Du Fu,…

Summer Poetry Reading List 2014

Ernesto Cardenal, Apocalypse and Other Poems Ernesto Cardenal, Flights of Victory/Vuelos de Victoria Ernesto Cardenal, From Nicaragua with Love Ernesto Cardenal, Golden UFOs: The Indian Poems Ernesto Cardenal, Pluriverse: New and Selected Poems Ernesto Cardenal, Psalms Ernesto Cardenal, The Doubtful Strait Ernesto Cardenal, Zero Hour…

Wang Yang-ming

Catch yourself thinking. –Allen Ginsberg The influential neo-Confucian philosopher Wang Yang-ming was influenced by Ch’an Buddhism throughout his life. And not just intellectually: He spent regularly time at Buddhist monasteries. So, it isn’t surprising to…