Poetry by Daniel and Snow Reid
"When Snow moved in with me after our wedding in Chiang Mai, we devised a Chinese word game that we played in the morning during our overlapping time at the tea table, before I went to my desk to write. The goal was to compose a piece of Chinese verse together by alternately suggesting spontaneous lines and stringing them all together. One of us began with a line out of the clear blue sky, and the other added a rejoinder, and we continued until something interesting emerged. When we applied this exercise to the Dzogchen teachings, here’s my translation of what emerged:
Soul Music
(For Kana)
I left my phone at home today
and went out for a walk.
No rings, no bings, no cyber things,
no aimless idle talk.
Thoughts flowed freely through my mind,
and feelings reawoke.
A line of verse rose fully formed,
and then an angel spoke.
“I’ve waited day and night,” she said,
“for you to hear me sing.
But all my songs were muffled
by bings and pings and rings.”
I grabbed my pen and paper
and wrote that line of verse.
And right behind it followed
A line as fine and terse.
“Leave that thing at home,” she said,
when you come out to stroll.
And I will sing the songs for you
I hear within your soul.”
Daniel Reid, Chiang Mai
December 19, 2017
The Elephant
I dreamed I saw an elephant,
wading in a stream.
Or was he dreaming he was me,
or was I really him?
His trunk sucked water from the stream
and splashed it on his head.
He paused to take a mighty pee,
and then he spoke to me.
“I saw you in a dream,” he said,
“wading in a stream.
You splashed some water on your head,
and then you took a pee.”
- Daniel Reid
Smoke
Clouds of smoke drift through my room,
Curling in the air;
They swirl in twirling plumes of fume
Like strands of silver hair.
Rings of smoke whirl from my lips
And sail the wind I blow;
They float away like bobbing ships
And take my thoughts in tow.
Smoke is like a friend who knows
My every silent dream;
Like passing clouds it comes and goes
In slowly winding streams.
Daniel Reid, Dali, Yunnan, China 2017
In Dali Town
In Dali Town In Dali Town
There's Tasty Tea
And Honey Bees,
Mountain Mamas,
Temple Lamas.
In Dali Town
There's Yak Skin Drums
And Rasta Strums,
Wholesome Foods
And Carefree Moods.
In Dali Town
Cream Puff Clouds
And Happy Crowds,
Yunnan Coffee
Hand-pulled Taffy.
In Dali Town
Eagles Soar
And Rivers Roar,
Songbirds Sing
And Bike Bells Ring.
In Dali Town
We Never Frown,
We Don't Feel Down.
Come Hang Around
In Dali Town.
Daniel Reid
Dali, Yunnan, March 2017
Yankee Doodle
Dyslexia, dyspepsia,
Dysfunctional hysteria...
Faster food, slower service,
Paranoid, always nervous...
TV shows, mortgage woes,
Morgellons, Cheerios...
Overweight, underfed,
Half alive, nearly dead...
Daniel Reid
Dali, November 7, 2010
Terdrom
Prayer flags
Drape rocky crags
Across this magic place.
Stone strewn streams
Splash Sky Dance dreams
In fields of sacred space.
Shaggy yaks
With saddle packs
Lumber cross the vale.
Rainbow waves
Of terma rays
Pour down from hidden caves.
Hot springs steam
From brimstone seams,
Puff clouds wreath the peaks.
Padmasambhava--
The Lotus Born--
In wind blown whispers speaks:
"From birth to grave
We seek the cleft
From which we surged as babes.
With Heaven's grace
In Earth's embrace,
Sacrum forges primal force
And Hearts return to Source."
Friends of the Lotus,
Last week, Snow and I went down to Terdrom, the sacred hot-springs mountain where Padmasambhava and his consort Yeshe Tsogyal spent 7 years cultivating the highest practices together. We hiked up 5,000 meters to the caves where they practiced, did puja there, and when we got back to the lodge below to soothe ourselves in the hot-spring pool, this poem downloaded like falling rain.
This place is for real, well worth a visit... Dan & Snow
Daniel Reid
Terdrom, Tibet August, 2010
Love
They gave everything,
and asked
for nothing.
They just liked
the feeling.
That’s how love
works.
Daniel Reid
Dali, January 2010
The Beckoning Silence
(for Joe Simpson)
So real, like steel,
So full, so still.
Ever on and up I go,
Step by step, toe by toe.
Boots crunch stone along the trail,
Breath pumps bloo
from head to tail.
Water gurgles down the gorge,
Puff clouds billow, spirit soars.
Two more ridges, one more ledge,
And there I stand
on mountain’s edge.
Gazing down the world below,
Beckoning silence
overflows.
Daniel Reid, Big Black Peak
Evergreen Mountain , Dali, August, 2009
Haiku
In a mountain cave
An old man stirs the coals;
A crow caws out in the cold.
Daniel Reid
Four Maidens Mountain, China
November, 1981
Dali Town
Daniel Reid
Dali, China, October 2008
Dali Town
Cobbled lanes
Corniced eaves
Rock of ages
Rolling stone
Dali Town
Cool cafes
Music bars
Hand pressed hash
Blond tobacco
Dali Town
China chic
Himalaya hip
Mountain mama
City chick
Dali Town
Wholesome food
Crystal water
Alpine air
Tribal culture
Dali Town
Ancient rhythms
Modern beat
Rainbow sky
Rainy streets
Dali Town
Happy heart
Stoner head
Sweater weather
Feather bed
Daniel Reid
Shangrila
December 19 2008
Happy Birthday
(for Fred Reid)
Happy Birthday to you
Try not to feel blue
If you need a quick fix
I've got the right mix
Happy Birthday to you
May your dreams all come true
Live long and stay strong
Your gift is this song
Daniel Reid
Dali, China , July, 2008
Happy Birthday to you
Your karma is due
There's no other way
You'll just have to pay
Happy Birthday to you
Remember this too
It's never too late
To decide your own fate
Happy Birthday to you
Whatever you do
Don't waste precious time
You're way past your prime
Daniel Reid
May 6, 2003
Byron Bay
A Cup of Tea
A cup of tea at the break of dawn
Lifts the spirit and lights the heart.
A cup of tea after a meal
Cleans the mouth and aids digestion.
A cup of tea on a busy day
Quenches thirst and relaxes tension.
A cup of tea when overworked
Soothes the body and relieves fatigue.
Translated by Daniel Reid
Tea Poem
Willow branches graze the grass,
As I sit in the shade drinking tea.
A note from a flute blows clearly,
Mingling with the sound of rain.
I could sit here alone forever,
And still I'd never feel lonely.
Anonymous poem inscribed
on an old Yi Hsing tea pot
Translated by Daniel Reid
Byron Bay 6th July 2007
Rebirth
I was due for extinction
But got an extension
And promised to change my ways:
Give up my addictions
And past derelictions,
Now, without further delay.
Sprawled out on the floor,
One step from death's door,
My soul flew up and away,
When I heard a voice shout,
"Come back!" it cried out,
"Don't leave me alone, please stay!"
Like dreaming time at dawn,
It felt peaceful and calm,
Drifting in luminous space,
Then the sound of her cries
Opened my eyes,
With a blink of surprise,
As tears rolled down my love's face.
Daniel Reid
Byron Bay, July 9, 2007
The Prajna Paramita Heart Sutra
translated from the Chinese text written in the Tang Dynasty by Hsuan Tzang by Daniel Reid
Deep within the practice of the Prajna Paramita,
The Bodhisattva Kuan Yin
saw with radiant clarity
that the five cognitive clusters
are all empty of innate existence,
and thus transcended all suffering and pain.
Sariputra, form is not separate from emptiness;
emptiness is not separate from form;
form is emptiness;
emptiness is form;
sensation, thought, memory, and consciousness
are all the same as this.
Sariputra, all things are empty of definitive quality:
neither born nor destroyed;
not polluted nor pure;
never increased nor decreased.
Therefore, in emptiness there is no form,
no sensation, thought, memory, or consciousness;
no eyes, no ears, no nose, no tongue, no body, no mind;
no shape, sound, smell, taste, feeling, or thought;
no perceptual field of sight,
nor even a conceptual field of thought;
no ignorance and no end of ignorance;
no old age and death,
nor the end of old age and death;
no suffering, no cause of suffering,
no end of suffering, no path;
nothing to know and nothing to gain.
Because there is nothing to gain,
bodhisattvas abide in the Prajna Paramita
and do not build barriers in their minds;
because they build no barriers,
they know no fear
and keep clear of distorted delusion,
including nirvana.
All buddhas of the past, present, and future
abide in the Prajna Paramita
and so attain the Great Perfection
of fully awakened awareness.
Thus do we know the Prajna Paramita
is a mantra of great spirit,
is a mantra of great light,
is a mantra unsurpassed,
is a mantra unmatched,
It can end all suffering.
It is true, not false.
Thus we recite the Prajna Paramita mantra,
the mantra that is said like this:
“Om Gatay, Gatay, Para Gatay, Para Sam Gatay, Bodhi Svaha!”
[“Gone, Gone, Gone Beyond, Gone Far Beyond and Awakened!”]
* * *
The Prajna Paramita Sutra, known as the “Perfection of Wisdom,” is thought to have been composed during the first century A.D. in the region north of India that now belongs to Afghanistan and Pakistan, based on earlier teachings originating in South India in the first and second centuries B.C. The earliest surviving versions we have today are two translations in Chinese from now missing Sanscrit and Pali texts, one done by Kumarajiva around 400 A.D. and the other by the monk Hsuan Tzang in 7th century A.D., based on a text he brought back to China from his long pilgrimage to India. Also known in Chinese as the “Heart Sutra,” it is the most revered Buddhist teaching throughout China, Korea, and Japan and contains the seeds of the highest teachings of the Buddha. This translation into English is based on the Chinese translation done by Hsuan Tzang during the Tang Dynasty. May it inspire the wish to awaken in all who read it!
Ring Around the Rosy
Ring around the Rosy
Rings of fire
Rings of smoke
Rings of space and time
Wedding rings
Onion rings
The ring of truth and lies
Around the world
Around the clock
Round and round we go
Round the bend
Round the block
Another round of drinks
It never stops
No one wins
The race of life and death
Round and round
Run mice and men
Running out of breath
The Wheel of Life
On spokes of death
Spins in time and space
It never ends
You never win
Until you quit the race
Chiang Mai, January 2019