William Ricci

Tag: self

  • Poem – Road

    I have been down that road and at the end I was back here, where I started, where I attempted to break free of constraints. The road gave no clues. The road divulged no secrets. Frustrated and desperate I fell to the ground. In clear ice reflecting the morning sun I saw an outline. I…

  • Poem – Renewal

    The dirt path changed to stone and as time passed I lost my place. Emerging from one realm to another this one was foreign. And yet familiar if I closed my eyes, like some part of me crossed here before. And yet distant, the remote connection either passed or not arrived. Between two possibilities I…

  • Poem – Shadow

    Scattered dreams forgotten at first light. A vague cloud follows. Trees bend at impossible angles the air wavers and shimmers. I walk the dirt path worn from ancestors and ancient methods. Morning light through the tree canopy casts fragments across my face. I cannot help but feel I am being followed by a shadow of…

  • Nature and Us – One and the Same

    I’ve been continuing to read the book The Deep Ecology Movement. This includes an introduction to the movement and a collection of essays with varying thoughts and opinions. Along with finding many similarities to Buddhism, I feel this is a meaningful framework to express nature and humans, and the dependency of each on the other,…

  • Poem – Across the Empty Field

    I see a shadow sitting beneath a tree. The tree does not move and the shadow is still. Many moons and suns pass before I walk across the field through snow and over rocks, littered with objects of vague significance, they continue to gather and multiply until I am no longer able to reach myself.

  • Poem – Random Thoughts #2

    Oak holds up the changing sky. What is beyond insanity? At what point do we lose the essence of self, cascading into another state of being, plunged into the darkness that is nothing and everything? And with each turn the city of industry hides, changes, destroys what I previously knew and where I came from.

  • Poem – Self

    The following poem is from a conversation with Hanakia Zedek regarding Zen and takes place through a series of poems.  Questions are asked, along with a poem, and the response is a poem addressing each question. Self (1) Standing on the blue cliff on one side of the valley dividing mountain ranges tiled with a…

  • Searching and Finding

    Surrounded by Zen and Buddhism magazines, books reviews, and the latest issue of Edge Magazine, I pause for a moment. What am I looking for? Is there a concrete reason all of these words, images, advice, poems, other peoples lives, surround me? What do I take from this? I continue my studies of Zen Master…

  • Poem – Solace

    The broken sky appears over the horizon as the highway opens and we begin descending into Grand Marais. Across the calm water orange specks gather and coagulate until the whitish streaks are consumed by the setting sun. A sense of home or place elusive the past few months flawlessly and automatically distills itself within us.…

  • I walked in the Valley of Shadows

    I walk the valley of shadow and darkness looking for you, not your physical self but the essence left behind by the deeds and missions you have accomplished and completed, the sacrifices you have made and the self shaped through layers of experiences, yet we know the real person beneath.