An Unwritten Poem

Learn about a pine tree from a pine tree
And about bamboo plant from a bamboo plant.

Those words come from the 17th century Japanese poet Basho. He was referring to poetry, and how a poet should detach the mind from the self and enter the poem. The poem then writes itself, and the poet senses what the poem senses, and that expression is manifested physically. The poet’s personality and ego are shelved in another aspect of time. They rest in a dimension where psychological time is misunderstood. The time of a poem is eternal, and the poet lives in that eternity. Poets experience the nature of each symbol and word,and live them. The tiny strokes become their own world where no thing exists without the flavor of selfless awareness.

In the action of no-action the poem writes over the poet and a unity of character develops within the creases of the poet’s mind. A newness blooms into a scented flower of unity between the poem, the poet, and the reading self. The poet grasps the flower of self awareness, and finds another self. That self is busy writing what has already been written, so the reader reads what is already known. In this action, a quality of complexity forms a verse of meaning, and the poet, as well as the reader, senses the nature of oneness. Free to roam through the corridors of the poem, the poet finds an electromagnetic reality, a pattern of impulses, which spark imagination and a stanza of consciousness manifests through the ego. The poet’s ego chooses a channel of reception, and perceptions flow freely without the threatening forces of discrimination. The poem becomes the poet learning about a self from the self, as he lingers in pine and bamboo trees of his own consciousness.