Flowers in the Sky
By Michael P. Garofalo
Drifting snowflakes covered me,
to show us how January Reigns
by frozen filigree or chilly rain
falling on Mt. Olympus by the sea.
Retreating to my cold canvas hut,
resigned to read and sip tea;
covered up in dry warm wool,
thick blanket over my knees.
Opened up a classic Soto Zen
tome to read Master Dogen's
"Treasury of the True Dharma Eye"
for the fifth time since 1985's
"Moon in a Dewdrop: Shobogenzo."
I reread the new thorough translation
by Gudo Nishijima and Chodo Cross,
four volumes strong, particularly,
Volume 3, figuratively rich, notably,
"Flowers in Space: Kuge."
Phenomena actualized,
Noumena left unspecified.
False Eyes saw, creatively,
mirrored back and forth by me
distorted by my Inner Visions
seeing metaphors strive
to find meaning in Dogen's
Echizen Temple rooted mind.
I wrote:
In a flaming burst,
they kiss the earth,
shout to the sky:
"White! Pink! Yellow!"
Orchards of plums and peaches,
Acres of mustard-greens.
The Flowers of Time!
From the Ten Directions:
Spring brings on flowers,
Flowers bring on Spring.
Coming, here, gone:
Flowers in the Sky.
In the blink of one false eye,
In the blink of One True Eye,
Flowers in the empty sky;
Shimmering, scented ... gone,
Gone, gone, gone far beyond
Their seeds of arising.
But, staying, Here-Now,
A Great Marvel of Manifestation.
Bodhisattva's - for the Bees.
Soil, sun, rain, sky ...
Four Elements embracing,
Intertwined in mind.
Unfathomable Matrix;
Scaffolds on scaffolds
Grounded in Otherness.
Below seeds, flowers, leaves,
stems, roots ...
Below wet cells embraced,
Below atoms dancing on Energy...
Deeper and deeper below into
What? A Plenitude, a sacredness.
Emptiness in full bloom.
Above seeds, flowers, leaves,
stems, roots, fruits
Above water, soil, roots, branches,
Above sensing, feeling, working,
thinking ...
Higher and higher out towards
What?
"Vast emptiness, nothing holy."
Flowers in the sky.
Leaping from the Ledge of Infinite Regress,
The Unmoved Mover fell into Formlessness:
Pure silence echoed between the galaxies,
Eons of eons vanished in a second,
Withered trees bloomed in fires,
Polar mountains melted, rivers went dry,
Thusness scattered in sixty directions,
Space became Time, time became things.
Black Holes filled with Nirvana,
A billion samadhi mirrors shattered,
Galaxies snuggled within a single skull,
Many became One, One only, only One.
Then,
the Divine Illuminatrix in All Beings
Opened Her clouded Eye, to see:
Flowers in the Sky.
He sat for weeks under the Bodhi Tree
Before the morning sun Opened his Eyes;
Lotus blossoms fell from the sky.
She walked through the Gateless Gate,
Upright, staff in hand;
Plum blossoms opened across the land.
She sat and sat,
Till yea was nay, and nay was yea;
While roses bloomed on day by day.
Gnawing on his koan bone,
Suddenly, the taste of insight
Blue flowers amidst the grave sites.
Illusions, delusions, foolishness:
Those flowers falling from the sky.
Only our Mind's Eyes
Wishing for otherwise;
As always, embracing fertile lies.
Spinning fictions over facts;
Myth making, playful, eager to act,
Seeing what we want to see,
Seeking, yea saying, seeding,
giving it a try.
Having faith in Flowers in the Sky.
These yellow poppies reveal time,
These sweet green plums taste time,
These brown seeds generate time.
These gray leafless trees show time.
The Earth is Time; the Sky is Time.
And the five fingers of one black hand hold time,
And the blinking of two blue eyes cry time.
The dirty garden hoe and hoses water time,
And greasy tractor gears work time.
The snows on Mt. Ranier time,
Moving Reedsport sand dunes cover time,
Cold ocean waves at Oceanside cut time,
The onion seedlings in Salinas sweeten time,
The roaring Feather River rapids erode time;
Ventura flower fields color time.
Remembering is time, forgetting is time.
Black lines of scripture tell times,
Great and small doubts reveal time,
Hungry ghosts and naked demons are time,
Newborn Gods were conceived in time.
Death is time, and conception is time.
Vulgar time, broken time,
Our time, space-time, in time,
The Right time, before time, Sublime time,
Standard time, beyond time, past time.
DreamTime of a still body-mind is time.
Time and Time again,
Explaining All and not
explaining any-thing.
From Being-Lost, with no abode,
selfless, bone dry;
Comes the time-Now
for the enlightened cry:
"Flowers in the Sky!"
The Arrows of Time
never rest,
moving forward unrelenting
irreversible:
from hot towards cold
from organized to disorganized
from past to future
from moving towards stillness
from life towards death.
Or,
so it seems,
to us,
with our little particulars,
with our home brew views,
with our social habits a must.
The Spiderwebs of Time
are legion
multitudes of nows and thens;
Uncountable heres and theres
unhitched
from any eternal present
everywhere.
To Dance at the Still Point
Of the Time beyond time,
Beyond pasts, within futures,
this Moment
Now and forever, beyond
ordinary minds.
Imagine what the Will can Do,
Cannot do, will not do.
Imagine more.
Please,
remove the offered flowers
from the great stone Buddha's hands,
before he's blown up at Bamiyan;
and the dust and stones flying high,
Hide the flowers in the sky.
The Buddha raised one flower
Sharing a silent sign;
Maha-Kasyapa smiled,
Keeping an open mind.
Truly eye to eye, free and kind,
Outside any scriptures, beyond any lies;
Fresh flowers in a sunny sky.
Flower petals in the sky.
We stroll in rose gardens, and Love.
Precious flowers in the sky.
Speechless, Master Dogen stared,
Shivering in a turning white world
Raising cold dawn moons.
Bright white millions on millions
Of drifting flowery flakes
Fell fast from the Echizen sky.
Ice pure, elemental, quintessential
Wet, imperfect, flowing time
Packed by the hour, deeper,
Deeper down to Winter's core.
The Temple of Eternal Peace creaked,
Snowflakes gathered on Dogen's robe,
One icy crystal streaked the True Eye
Glimpsing into Itself;
Another transmission:
Lovely flowers in the Sky.
Emptiness in Full Bloom: Flowers in the Sky
At the Edges of the West, Volume 2
25 Steps and Beyond: Collected Works
Mike Garofalo lives in Vancouver, Washington.
He worked for 50 years in city and county
public
libraries, and in elementary
schools.
He graduated with
degrees in
philosophy,
library science, and education. He has been
a web publisher since 1998.
April 11, 2025