Silent sensei

**original poetry** *with reading* ___ ![weeping-willow-3109571_1920.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmQxNZUBYpe5EeNZFtC3j8VFBBGZBEMxu5B66BJZ7Enrcv/weeping-willow-3109571_1920.jpg) ___ ![weeping-willow-3109571_1920 3.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmZypEcfT5J7L68WDbE3jgJyfoeAWL4EnVqQUDsEQsrgwh/weeping-willow-3109571_1920%203.jpg)

---Listen to me recite--- -------"Silent sensei"------- ---on @dsound below:---

---► Listen on DSound---
--► Listen from source (IPFS)--

![weeping-willow-3109571_1920 2.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmanEJ2WFYhPAmNZGH9iXLRAWn6iVZXGvWGy3uSieeri9g/weeping-willow-3109571_1920%202.jpg) ___

I.

I know I befriended Emptiness Because it speaks to me like a lover That takes everything away, and smiles. Its words of tenderness Are the spaces Between. Its yearning is My terror: Its absence, My glee. And yet until It visits, Life is filled with only smoke. I fall through the floors of this world, And below them is coals. There is a furnace That churns forever Where Emptiness lives. Its vibrating fumes coalesce Into ribbons of planets. Its vulcanism peers through void Through a trillion sun-eyes. Its singeing lips Form syllables that Echo through eternity All the way from the nexus Of infinity looping into whispers That enter in my ear and make me weep.

II.

In the shade of the willow my soul took a knocking; The shade of my sorrow my heart shadowed o'er. The fading delight of my youth, she had perished To me, with my fancy, and fervor, and life.
An endeavor to salvage was started by breezes That shifted the leaves and the sky's fawnish hues. It carried my crumple-worn hopes from the leafbed And ushered them upwards to wingward unwane.
In the fiery span, I aloft, I bestrewn Saw my pride burn away in a puff, a bright plume. Through the smoke many-colored a sweet smile I saw Of lush Emptiness come to instruct me in law. ___ ![pollard-willow-3089428_1920.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/DQma6V5w3GMF4HWcuytJku4RCA3bL2Z1ZRRUstKZjwxw6TY/pollard-willow-3089428_1920.jpg) ___

Notes

When you practice any art form daily, you begin to see many repeated themes and patterns emerge in your creations. I have a feeling it is this tendency, in part, that leads to the creation of the concept of "writer's block" (which, from my experience, I do not subscribe to.) However, I do agree there is a certain existential weariness that can emerge and imprint itself upon one's art. To a degree I discuss that seeming Emptiness (which is really a Fullness) in this two-part piece. Again, we are back to paradox, an artistic fixation of mine. The first part is rather free form and exploratory, and the second is a more formulaic and romantic verse. The recitation is very plain today.

On writing itself

I was pondering today, and think it meaningful to comment that the reason why I am able to consistently write poetry every day with relative ease is that I have little to no expectations of the result. This is in direct opposition to other creative outlets I have pursued such as music and sport, where I often have unrealistic expectations of my performance. For some reason, I do not have much concept of myself as a writer. It does not much concern me what the result of my daily practice session is. All that matters is the feeling I get when I quiet my mind and feel the peculiar lucidity of tuning into language: and that I follow the exquisite bliss that arises to where it is intending to lead me. It is such an experience that keeps me coming back to the empty canvas, day after day, to tap into that mimicless expanse. It is a pure enjoyment that amazes me in a world in which it is all too easy to feel joyless and bitter. Wishing you the same sanctuary of serenity, wherever it is that you find it.

In wholeness, @d-pend

![pollard-willow-3089428_1920 2.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmac8VdXahgUwfBqx49b3jEnDtnEvJzdUUKcZa8ta7s7qu/pollard-willow-3089428_1920%202.jpg)

---Listen to me recite--- -------"Silent sensei"------- ---on @dsound below:---

---► Listen on DSound---
--► Listen from source (IPFS)--

![pollard-willow-3089428_1920 3.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmYJGKwfKzgSMtgdoJqbMmnZEJAAAcANGJMsiVNcqtLoph/pollard-willow-3089428_1920%203.jpg) ___ ![china-1013614_1920.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/DQme4i2aeB9ko2BsMeyHQ4wxyPG2dQpaVy37BMhtZn2VfU7/china-1013614_1920.jpg) ___ ![negtree-crow 2.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmToeqqRebV5TDwKnwcM8Jv5JvCncXM5JcPLAkyJ1FZCxz/negtree-crow%202.jpg)![negtree-crow 3.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmcNf7BmmCLkPCWKiHyBz753d1sds31XWU8nqmHCLERxBj/negtree-crow%203.jpg)

Written & spoken By @d-pend 2/5/18

**Images are Free domain.**
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