I want silence, silence to slide upon
the feet of my guru, lay for him roses down.
a man of course, a matted beard, a drone lute’s hum

he of course a purity, a pristine light; humanity,
om mani padme hum.

oh small gods
of sky’s domain, no fecundity soils your clouded plain,
elevate low your
                       lotus pain,
train the body, control the mind.

he utters up his smoked-gold flutes, pristine chest that never leaked milk, at least he does not lie, so his thousand bubbles fade away. 

oh Krishna carry me away, into the grief and there to pray. That dark voice pure as heaven, baba Ram, baba Ram, the god-portal come.

for all the earth he has the girls, 24-karats in which to seek mad thrills,
he remembers days of now-dead clan, this old man,
still mother’s child, inside.

“we’re golden sunflowers”
said Ginsberg to Jack
above a fecund railroad track
“be here now” said Ram for Baba
shining the masses, in sunshine states

while the gurus remained in India.
Quiet as caves.

“we are one and one is all”
be here now, the ektar drum.
om mani padme hum.
hum, the price to pay.
hum, to suffer meaningless
another day.

In the sunflower, black and white –
a thousand caves,
fading
away.

a whorl of stars, another way.
turning        in
when sun shines bright.

I bring you back, old man, with soul so young, I wash your feet, a  thousand

         roses           lay.

fecund mother

        sunflower           brother

the gates of              heaven          in your gaze

your time has come
to daze     upon days
the answers lie in sunflower ways.

Sit still, to be radical
said Lee Bob Black.

 

forget the blackened railroad track.
regenerate the thousand blooms within
your teeming heart of earth.

but Baba went online
to teach the sitters at his feet,
jumping all around again
to that dog-gone beat.
the charming beat, alarming beat.
om mani padme hum.
the ektar strum.

another day, another hum.

and still, I love you all the ways,
for we are one.

 

 

===

“we’re golden sunflowers inside, blessed by our own seed & hairy naked accomplishment-bodies growing into mad black formal sunflowers in the sunset” — Allen Ginsberg, Sunflower Sutra, Berkeley, 1955 

“The path to enlightenment is not a group trip. It’s between you and God. This means you’ve got to go inside.
“The fewer external distractions and the more concentration you have, the easier it is to get there. – It’s Here Now (Are You?)” — Bhagavan Das, http://www.bhagavandas.com/ home page, last updated 2018.

“Ram, Ram, Ram, Ram, Ram. Remember God. Remember God. Whatever you do, remember God.” —  Ram Das (Reflections from The Love Serve Remember Foundation, YouTube, Dec 13, 2012, via https://www.ramdass.org, last updated 2019.

“The only truth is music.” ― Jack Kerouac, Desolation Angels, 1965

===

• Featured image by LLUIS BUSSE, from The Monochrome Experience: Sunflowers field, published August 24, 2019, https://lluisbusse.wordpress.com/2019/08/24/the-monochrome-experience-sunflowers-field/ 
• The Dharma and Cult of Bhagavan Das: An interview by Lee Bob Black
  (interview took place May 2005, published on Medium Jun 10, 2016) https://medium.com/idea-insider/the-dharma-and-cult-of-bhagavan-das-an-interview-by-lee-bob-black-8680ace5760d 
• Karmageddon, The Movie, by OpenHeart Gang, 2012: https://vimeo.com/44216917
• Sunflower Sutra by Allen Ginsberg, 1955, found at https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/49304/sunflower-sutra

 

Nadine inhales & exhales words & images from current vantage point in Zone of Emptiness, France. Thank you for reading. ❤︎