The Ekphrastic Review
  • The Ekphrastic Review
  • The Ekphrastic Challenges
    • Challenge Archives
  • Ebooks
  • Prizes
  • Book Shelf
    • TERcets Podcast
  • The Ekphrastic Academy
  • Give
  • Submit
  • Contact
  • About/Masthead

Buddha's Face, a Triptych: a Collaboration of Three Poets

11/13/2018

0 Comments

 
Picture
Photo Dharma from Sadao, Thailand, CC BY 2.0 Wikimedia Commons

Buddha and Jesus: Gap Years

Siddartha Gotama, did you travel,
Goatskin bag, begging bowl,
Dusty sandals, orange robes,
Finding the coast of Australia,
60,000 years people living the Dreamtime,
Did you sit with an old shaman
Under the shade of a gum tree ?

Your visage serene
still  lovingly wrapped
in an ancient tree in Siam.  

Jesus, in those missing years
Were you in India
Finding freedom from suffering
Among the Buddha’s disciples
On the banks of the Ganges ?

Your bloodstained face impressed
on the shroud of Turin

Joep Rambouts


Brevity
a mirror cinquain

Buddha,
transient art
or eternal spirit,
enlightenment or carver’s art?
divine
human
creation formed,
gazing into the Now
in brevity of centuries.
Wake up!

Victoria Crawford


Moments

I.
Who are you?
What are you?
Merely stone in wood?
More than human?
You breathe nature
though you breathe not.

II.
Michelangelo
saw David
in a block of marble,
Who saw Buddha
nestled in the roots
of that banyan tree?
Who saw you in full detail--
hair braided,
eyes closed,
lips resting soft,
one upon the other?
Was it I?

III.
Matter and form,
perfect unity:
ancient tree,
honoured image,
harmony,
Buddha.

IV.
He sleeps
I daydream
He is awake
I am asleep.

V.
"What are you?"
asked the five ascetics,
"Are you a ghost?
Are you a spirit?
Are you a demon?"
I look upon that face
looking out at me,
that tree birthing that face,
and I hear your answer,
"I am awake!”

VI.
All reality awakes
to its true nature,
its true being,
its enlightenment,
moving from
that which can be
to that which is,
and out of doubt.

VII.
Wherever I go,
there I am,
Buddha,
Enlightened,
Awake.

George W. Ross


Three lives wandering six of the seven continents, meet and, charmed by the Muse of Poetry, collaborate.  Joel Rombouts, originating in S. Africa, S. America, and Australia is the author of a novel, short stories, and poems set in Australasia when he isn’t tending his mango farm.  George W. Ross hails from Boston, but raised his family in Costa Rica and San Francisco before retiring to Thailand where he writes poetry and performs at the Magic Poetry Theatre.  Victoria Crawford moseys around in retirement writing and doing needlework.  Individually and collaboratively the three have been published in journals such as Parousia, ColdNoon, Hawaii Pacific Review, The Lyric, and performed at the Magic Poetry Theatre.
0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    The Ekphrastic Review
    Picture
    Current Prompt
    COOKIES/PRIVACY

    This website uses marketing and tracking technologies. Opting out of this will opt you out of all cookies, except for those needed to run the website. Note that some products may not work as well without tracking cookies.

    Opt Out of Cookies
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Join us: Facebook and Bluesky
    @ekphrasticreview.



    ​
    ​Archives
    ​

    May 2025
    April 2025
    March 2025
    February 2025
    January 2025
    December 2024
    November 2024
    October 2024
    September 2024
    August 2024
    July 2024
    June 2024
    May 2024
    April 2024
    March 2024
    February 2024
    January 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    October 2023
    September 2023
    August 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015

    Lorette C. Luzajic [email protected] 

  • The Ekphrastic Review
  • The Ekphrastic Challenges
    • Challenge Archives
  • Ebooks
  • Prizes
  • Book Shelf
    • TERcets Podcast
  • The Ekphrastic Academy
  • Give
  • Submit
  • Contact
  • About/Masthead