Synopsis

Bottle in the River:  List of Poems

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Finding the Flow

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Morning Dream  (74 words, 28 lines, Free Verse)
A poem using a metaphor from Pema Chodron’s writings:  that the morning rain can be perceived as good for the dry garden or bad for the planned picnic.  Instead, the Poet decides to go back to sleep, and in doing so, begins to awaken.

Yea Plunge  (169 words, 46 lines, Rhyming Couplets)  Sample Included
The fingertips of "that I am" sends sailing through the tick a bottle that lands in a river.  "And please refrain from any laughter, as you learn, I jumped in after."

Journatation  (193 words, 43 lines, Free Verse)
A poem introducing the art of journaling as a form of meditation, where the Poet is "digging past the chattering haze, from the last of the dreaming phase." 

Gravity  (68 words, 19 lines, Structured Free Verse)
The Poet learns about the continual motion of impermanence in this poem comparing the attraction between all things (gravity) to love, and posing the question:  What causes the river to run?

Winter  (99 words, 30 lines, Rhyming Free Verse)
Up north, where the river freezes, the Poet can walk on water.  He worries that further down south, where the water won't freeze, he will not be able to walk on water. 

The Concept: Reality  (119 words, 45 lines, Triplet Free Verse)
Again the Poet wonders, what is the river?  Is it the banks that hold the water in place or is it the water itself?  Could it be the force of nature that causes the current to flow?  Meanwhile, a little foreshadowing: "somewhere down the river's flow, we lose the name, and yet we are drawn to the banks of was and will."

Now  (135 words, 29 lines, Free Verse)
“When did the water turn to steam?”  And more importantly, why are we not noticing the passing of important but subtle moments?

Transition  (84 words, 20 lines, Triplet Free Verses)
That point in time prior to the future and just after the past, that's where the Poet is trying to live.  It isn't easy.

Swimming  (171 words, 31 lines, Triplet Free Verses)
The Poet, tiring of the constant mind-chatter during meditation, throws his “Self” into the river and watches, running along the bank of was or will.  The poem switches from past to future tense, and ends up in the present tense, when the Poet becomes his Self.

Geometry  (190 words, 58 lines, Free Verse)
This poem addresses how journaling as a form of meditation can clear the clutter and open up the window to "the muse."  But then suddenly the Poet fears "the muse," and wonders: "If about the bottle I truly care, should I try to find a compass or a square?"

Eve  (123 words, 19 lines, Metered Rhyme)
Hatred and blame can keep you out of the river for millennia.  For example:  "Oh Tree of Knowledge please shake this vision, the story of one woman's hungry decision.  Turn our hearts instead to the truth, that all things are changing; like rivers and youth."

To Christ (108 words, 19 lines, Metered Rhyme)
One way to read this would yield a conclusion that the Poet thinks Jesus was a Buddhist.  Another way, that the Poet is asking Jesus for help back to the river.

Conversation  (77 words, 20 lines, Rhyming Free Verse)
In a conversation with Jesus, the Poet “releases the lies.” 

Orthodoxy  (52 words, 21 lines, Free Verse          )
A nut exclaims that it had a dream, and saw our mother the tree!  The shell strongly objects, because “there is nothing around but ground.”

Cookbook People  (140 words, 29 lines, Free Verse Couplets)
A warrior teaches people how to light a fire, because they could not find the instructions for doing so in their cookbook.

One Meaning  (133 words, 30 lines, Structured Free Verse)
The Poet is asked (again and again), “what is the meaning of your life?.  What one thing do you believe in?"  The Poet suspects that there is no such thing as “one meaning.” 

Bottle in the River  (131 words, 27 lines, Free Verse Couplets)
The Poet sees the bottle in the river, and asks the Reader to catch the bottle in the river, pour it out, and interpret the message.

Letter  (267 words, 35 lines, Free Verse Couplets)
In the bottle is a letter, and the Poet has trouble deciphering its meaning.  It speaks of many things:  generosity, discipline, patience, purposeless purpose, meditation, and wisdom.

Message in the Bottle  (149 words, 43 lines, Free Verse)
The legend of the monk who crossed a body of water riding on an oar, perhaps this monk is a Poet Warrior!  The Poet decides to be a Poet Warrior!

Discipline  (280 words, 53 lines, Rhyming Couplets) Sample Included
The Poet Warrior knows if he just stays on the raft, he will continue to float down the river.  "Then the raft capsized, and boy was I surprised, when I found I could float all the same."

Exasper  (291 words, 65 lines, Free Verse) 
Another Poem inspired by Pema Chodron, chronicling a person happily drifting on a raft in the river, irritated at a boat that keeps coming directly at the raft.  The Poet ends up letting the boat ruin the moment, only to find out at the end that the boat is anchored!

The Poet Warrior  (131 words, 42 lines, Free Verse)
The Poet crashes on a boulder and finds himself up on the dry bank.  He still feels happy and proud that he has found the message in the bottle, and realizes it comes simply from listening during meditation.  He decides his poems are the Arms of the Poet Warrior.

Stuck  (84 words, 36 lines, Free Verse)
As much as the Poet Warrior wants to believe the message in the bottle, he somehow can't put it into action.  The fear is still there.  It's like he received the message in his mind, but not his heart.  He longs for the euphoria.

Un-repressing  (134 words, 31 lines, Structured Free Verse)  Sample Included
Warning:  when you “clean your closet,” you bring monsters into the rest of the house!

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Stuck on the Bank

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Camping  (75 words, 16 lines, Structured Free Verse)
The Poet Warrior rests on the bank.  However:  “All is done, in the camp, for fun—but zero’s and one’s come chase it away.” 

Fire  (90 words, 19 lines, Metered Rhyme)
The Poet Warrior learns that we must camp in the holy hot fire of pain, fear and uncertainty.  The Poet resists:  "A younger me would think me nuts."  But he sits in the fire anyway.

Reacting on the Bank  (136 words, 33 lines, Free Verse)
The Poet Warrior “wields the sword of the present, slicing into the moment.”  But once out of sorts, trying to get back into the flow isn’t so easy.  Even when you are practicing “all the right things,” sometimes it “doesn't much matter, for up here on the bank, the river just flows past."

Attachment  (143 words, 43 lines, Free Verse)
A droplet in the sky is falling and hoping to land in the river.  Hope is as false as fear!  Sometimes we get confused as to the attachment and/or being attached to the idea of attachment.  (And sometimes we become attached to the last edition of our work!)  This poem about cravings, false beliefs, and circular thinking ends with the question:  "Am I the reflection or just the mirror?"

Fathering  (89 words, 25 lines, Free Verse)
Fatherhood presents a whole array of fears.  And fear causes us to take actions that only put us in a new place of fear.  Is that what being a father is all about?

Parallax  (207 words, 40 lines, Metered Rhyme)
A parable about the culture of fear using train-track repair workers and a man who walks the tracks singing.  The man was killed.

Another Butterfly Effect  (102 words, 29 lines, Metered Rhyme)  Sample Included
A nature poem about terrorism and our culture of fear. 

Stay Now  (41 words, 11 lines, Metered Rhyme)
Some of us are lost in hope as much as fear. 

Mother  (225 words, 38 lines, Free Verse)
Poem of praise, glorifying the tree and yet delineating more cultural fear as the poem decries the mutilation of forests and climate change.

21st Century Contrition  (237 words, 43 lines, Metered Rhyme)  Sample Included
A poem about the disappearance of the Honeybee.

The Clearing  (222 words, 43 lines, Free Verse)
Bodhichitta is there for us all, just waiting for us.  Finding it, just briefly, helps the Poet realize he is not a Poet Warrior; he is just happy and satisfied to be a Poet.

Day and Night  (165 words, 34 lines, Metered Rhyme)
Day and night are married right, as sure as the path of the sun.  Spontaneous mission of seperation gone, when they meet with the dusk and the dawn.

Presence  (65 words, 26 lines, Free Verse)  Sample Included
A nature poem about reaching, guilt, and just being.

Start Where You Are  (76 words, 19 lines, Metered Rhyme)
Pema Chodron encourages us to “start where you are” when stuck.  The Poet realizes "there is no such certainty, and the road often goes imperfectly."  Maybe he should just start writing without regard to what he is writing.

Jour  (193 words, 46 lines, Structured Free Verse)
The Poet pleads to his muse, and decides to just write about anything.  About how just one little step in the right direction can bring out your muse, or how journaling can help you “listen” to your muse.

Thought Journey  (138 words, 30 lines, Structured Free Verse)
Journaling focuses us to be aware of our thoughts, almost like we are listening to the true journey that we are on.  It helps us get in touch with our Muse.

Middle Child  (239 words, 42 lines, Structured Free Verse)
There is a blank page in the book right before this poem, which compares a blank page found in a journal to a person with no expectations, and thus free to do anything. 

Blade  (188 words, 46 lines, Concrete)  Sample Included
This poem, about how journaling (or meditation or just living) is a continual process of cutting through one layer of lessons after the next, looks like a knife.

Story  (211 words, 19 lines, Concrete)
Sometimes journaling or meditating is simply helping your mind beyond “the story.”  All the chatter and mind-talk only dampens the window to the soul.  Fear creates this need to have “a story.”  This concrete poem shows the story of the book through this point, with Microsoft Word’s change tracking turned on, including comments like, "God?  Don't you mean his muse?" and "should we just accept these changes and move on."  It ends with the word ". . . . thinking . . . . "

a poem is . . .  (111 words, 29 lines, Free Verse)
The Poet reaches into the river with a special ladle and out he pulls, from the stream of thought . . . . a poem.

Confidence  (69 words, 24 lines, Structured Free Verse)
Awesome lightning does its thing with so much confidence.  It has no problem getting back into the flow.  It has a purposeless purpose!

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The End, We Sea

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River Rising  (154 words, 27 lines, Free Verse)
It’s raining now, way too much. 

Flood  (94 words, 34 lines, Structured Free Verse)
Though the flood brings uncertainty and destruction, it also brings renewal and makes it easier for us to return to the river.

Wet Basement  (138 words, 34 lines, Free Verse)
The Poet is a bit irritated with the flood, until he recognizes his opportunity, that impermanence is here to help us go back into the flow.  The flood helps us understand that change comes whether we like it or not, and the way we react to it is up to us.

Age of Terror  (224 words, 32 lines, Metered Rhyme)
After the flood, the Poet finds himself floating in a pool of fear, stagnating with the rest of culture.  He decides to slip out of it, through a cool spring, into the river.

Way Muse In  (66 words, 18 lines, Structured Free Verse)
Ode to the muse, or the river, or the dreamtime, or whatever . . .  comparing the current (that which drives the river) to the muse. 

Daydream  (40 words, 19 lines, Free Verse)
Going into a dream and coming out. 

Daydream Connection  (104 words, 35 lines, Structured Free Verse)
And going back into the daydream, the Poet meets a strange little creature, and realizes his connection to all living things, even the creatures that live in our dreams.

Together  (80 words, 21 lines, Triplet Free Verse)
We are connected, even if we live on different planets. 

Togetherness  (163 words, 40 lines, Free Verse)
We may have completely different religions, completely different philosophies, or completely different cultures.  We may live in different parts of the river.  And yet, we can still achieve togetherness if we live with the right intentions.

Life  (64 words, 17 lines, Structured Free Verse)
We’re all connected, and uncertainty connects us.  In fact, everything connects us.  Even death is partially what connects us.

Genes  (84 words, 32 lines, Free Verse)
About the instructions connecting one generation to the next.





Sequence  (59 words, 29 lines, Concrete)  Sample Included
Speaking of those instructions, is there a pattern that connects all patterns that connect all patterns that connect . . . . . ?  A concrete poem based on the mathematical series that is found in nature, art, music, and genetic research.

You Can Love  (124 words, 31 lines, Free Verse Couplets)
A poem about loving kindness.

Eleven  (105 words, 27 lines, Rhyming Couplets)
If we can believe there is such a thing as the number eleven, without skepticism, why can’t we believe the river will lead us to a good place (the sea)?

Sea Saw  (105 words, 30 lines, Free Verse Couplets)
But will the river truly lead us to the sea?  Though uncertain, the Poet decides to just “plunge back into the waking flow.”

Small Talk  (91 words, 19 lines, Free Verse)
We call talk about the weather “small talk,” but the weather is actually not so small after all. 

Ocean In Tension  (244 words, 46 lines, Structured Free Verse)
Finally, the Poet makes it to the ocean, and it’s not blissful or anything like heaven.  Disappointed, he starts to sink, and then swims downward in anger, clear through the bottom of the ocean.  And there, he finds himself at the top of the earth, right back at the beginning of the river. 

Ocean Intention  (258 words, 29 lines, Metered Rhyme)  Sample Included
The Poet realizes he must still learn lessons, that he can't just spend his life in a bliss.  He then chooses to go back down the river again.

Rescued Me  (100 words, 20 lines, Metered Rhyme)
A poem of praise to the true dream within us, that causes us to go into the river again.

Not Like I Thought  (120 words, 30 lines, Triplet Free Verses)  Sample Included
Nothing is ever like we think it's going to be.  Perhaps dying is the true awakening.

Translucense  (173 words, 38 lines, Structured Free Verse) 
The river, bodhichitta, and fear are one.




Waves of Love  (177 words, 39 lines, Concrete)
This poem assumes the Poet has gone down the river again, and is in the ocean again, and has learned to ride the waves of love, accepting that there is no beginning and there is no end.

Preamble  (154 words, 38 lines, Free Verse)
A poem honoring synchronicity and fate, and that Bodhichitta and the Poet were always meant to meet.

Wake  (54 words, 20 lines, Rhyming Free Verse)
An ode to the muse, or bodhichitta, or whatever causes the waves!

Evaporation  (68 words, 34 lines, Structured Free Verse)
The Poet realizes that the evaporation of the ocean is what creates rain, which drives and feeds the river.  The Poet accepts that:  “as long as the sea endures, may I be here for all, within this empty ocean, drying trepidation.” 

The Seventh Day  (70 words, 30 lines, Free Verse)
On the Seventh Day, the Lord threw a party and made a toast!