Memory Ashes

 

Above Great Stupa of Dharmakayna,

Up trail leading to Marpa Peak,

The Dharma Lion memorial is so striking

Even fearless Anne Waldman gasped back tears.

 

Here in this John McCann oatmeal canister are

ashes of Allen Ginsberg, poet.

 

Peter Orlovsky, who inspired Allen Ginsberg

With love & poesy, banjo singing songwriting

Oracular Peter Orlovsky, personal trainer

To sons and daughters

Of nobility––

 

His memorial in outcrop, a few steps away––

Remains in plastic bag.

 

As soon as we begin burning their photographs,

Shelley’s west wind whips through the trees.

Eventually, the wind dies.

Their images are no more.

Blue sky––all for show,

All for emptiness.

 

In this place, these words were said:

“O Compassionate Ones, these people––

Allen Ginsberg and Peter Orlovksy––

Have died without choice, with no friends, no refuge, no allies.

They have entered the great wilderness.

They have gone where there is no solid ground.”

 

 

Shambhala Mountain Center

28 August 2010

 

 

[Published in The Groundless Ground: Poems 2010-2014.

© 2014 by Jim Cohn.]