POEM: I of the Storm

Posted on June 4, 2026 by Top Pun

Perhaps my greatest intrigue in the life of the Buddha is reflected in this poem…

I of the Storm

Buddha, a Bodhisattva, remained in Enlightenment – the “Great Compassion” – forestalling Nirvana – “blowing out” – to help end the suffering of others.

For near eternity
I was planted
At the center of the whirled
Still
I extended my hand
Into the temp-est of awe
With such gust, oh, gust, oh
Gust
My won hand is slapped
The soul sound of victory

NOTE: The “sound of one hand clapping” is one of the more famous Zen koans, a paradox to be meditated upon that is used to train Zen Buddhist monks to abandon ultimate dependence on reason and to force them into gaining sudden intuitive enlightenment.

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POEMS: Haves and Halve Knots

Posted on June 3, 2026 by Top Pun

I wish the world was divided merely in half, instead of haves and have nots. Even sow, I gladly caste my allot with the poor…

Haves and Halve Knots

How did we get
In two this mess
Divorced from won
An other
Torn as under
And how due wee
Get out!
As knot unraveled
I proffer to
Caste my allot
With the poor
As a pose to the haves
And halve knots
A cut above the wrest

NOTE: the last two lines refer to the cutting of the Gordian knot, a metaphor for a complex, intractable problem that seems impossible to solve. The phrase comes from the Greek legend where Alexander the Great cut an intricate knot with his sword, demonstrating an unexpected solution to a seemingly unsolvable problem.

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POEM: A Knew Horizon

Posted on June 2, 2026 by Top Pun

There are heavenly places within known horizons and beyond known horizons…

A Knew Horizon

Wear earth
Metes heaven
Can seam
Sew far
Aweigh
As a knew
Horizon
Wear heaven
Metes earth
A symmetry
Divining awe
In between

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POEM: A Nation Stupefied

Posted on June 1, 2026 by Top Pun

Our dear leader seems to be in an arms race with himself, with stupid lying vying with utter foolishness. At some moments, my comfort is that when evil is pared with incompetence, there is some mitigating effect. I am eagerly awaiting the day when it is normal to see that making the village idiot the most powerful person in the world is the height of foolishness.

A Nation Stupefied

He made US
Promises
A bout peace breaking
Out
A mist affordability cries
He laid out his word
Iran
The country
Into the ground
A cryptic goaled monument
To hymn self
A nation stupefied
And just saying
We have been
Played
Buy the Trump card

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POEM: More

Posted on May 31, 2026 by Top Pun

God is more, then you can think…

More

She could not say
What God might
Holy be
She did acclaim
Awe you knead
To know
God is
More
And amor
That unending reach
In two
One’s heart
Ore more

“Wherever two ore more is gathered…”

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POEM: Borders

Posted on May 30, 2026 by Top Pun

We are all boarders on planet earth divided by many artificial borders…

Borders

They drew first
A straight line
Too the heart of the madder
A dividing lyin’
Between the whirled of things and people
Cutting
Through
Awe that is real
Then
As convenienced
Fallowing the gentle curves of nature
Rivers and shore lines
And fore what
The accost
As they billed a map
Posedly representing reality
Or at leased realty
And figuring
Out people
There own
As nations state
Their setup
Sovereignty
Verses sovereignty
A law
Which man maid
Property rites
Above awe

The law is made for man, not man for the law.

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POEM: In Awe Probability

Posted on May 29, 2026 by Top Pun

I am fascinated by leaning into possibility as posed to mirror probability. This might, vary well, be the difference, between being free and being controlled…

In Awe Probability

In that moment
I saw ten thousand possibilities
In each
And every
Snap of would in the forced
Creak in the hows
Rumble of war
That God must
Laugh
At our knead to control

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POEM: Tao Remains

Posted on May 27, 2026 by Top Pun

I’ve been reading the Tao Te Ching again lately. I find this writing perhaps the most succinct way to access our source of being…

Tao Remains

The Tao
Before I was borne
Well, as I live and breathe
And when I am only remains
Tao remains

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POEM: Top Down, Bottom Up

Posted on May 26, 2026 by Top Pun

If we have a revolution in America, I suspect that it will be due to massive income inequality…

Top Down, Bottom Up

If you don’t get it
As a madder of fact
That’s exactly the point
Of that rich love
Of a convertible democracy
Top down
And an economy drunk on greed
Bottoms up
Mean wile
The wrest of US
May just find
Ourselves losing it
Awe
That wee ever had
An economy re-nude
What we may
Be left with
Is flash mobs
To arouse a revolution
In the face of
Tops down
And bottoms up

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POEM: Be Getting

Posted on May 25, 2026 by Top Pun

Violence begets violence. May we go to that well, being, and learn to live in peace…

Be Getting

Trying
As won may
Drying
As won may
Where there is no well
Being
What might
Won expect
Be
Getting
Be
Getting
Violence
When awe is a bout
Getting

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POEM: Hi Def

Posted on May 24, 2026 by Top Pun

Multi-tasking dulls our focus. Do one thing at a time, or less…

Hi Def

What might
Be the best
Rendering of Zen
Do one thing
And of the Tao
Do no-thing
A sharp contrast to the dull
Due won thing

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POEM: Star Power

Posted on May 22, 2026 by Top Pun

In this age of foolishness, I just, pay attention to the firmaments of the universe. Won cannot cheat reality, let a loan realty. Today’s poem honors the next us of timely and timeless…

Star Power

I found myself
In heavy years
Yet before long and longing
I was a star
Uncounted light years
A way
And the darker the night
The brighter I peer

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POEM: Stupid Verses Wisdom

Posted on May 11, 2026 by Top Pun

If we are to be saved, it will be by our hearts not simply ramping up intellect. Wisdom is more foundational than intellect for human flourishing…

Stupid Verses Wisdom

Is the whirled messing with you
Crying out
Clean up on I’ll won
Wile we bank on
Stupid
Figuring intellect will
Triumph over
Foolishness
As if whizzed ‘em
Is sum kind
Of algorithm
Reckoning cruelty trumps kindness
If kneaded
Enough!
Humanity is not numb-er crunching
Amor sow
As patience and courage
Yielding
Victory
The ultimate weigh insight
The udder most actions
Beyond halving words
Certainly knot
Dumb
And dumber
As awe surpassing
Mirror hoarse cents

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POEM: Beyond Laudable

Posted on May 10, 2026 by Top Pun

You can’t take it with you, but you can live and die with barns full in a hungry world…

Beyond Laudable

They lived along
Rich life
Making their claim
Money is not that important to me
Soully to die
To wealth
Pried
From their cold, dead hands
Calling a laudable
From beyond

They also will answer, “Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?” –Matthew 25:44

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POEM: To Tithe or Knot Too Tithe

Posted on May 10, 2026 by Top Pun

A poem for my churchy brethren…

To Tithe or Knot Too Tithe

“What is a tithe? A good start. An offering of our best.”

The church debates
For what is taxed as years
A tithe as net
Simp-ly gross
Or an elegant 10% solution
In what is a parent deal
God gets a dime
For every dollar
Abut given
God’s collection deportment
Amor like two cents
Billed
As tradition
Would halve it
Never the less
Fore the truly ambitious
A pro portion of what
You would like to make
In God’s image
The best of you
Or in sum grave
In image
The bust of you

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POEM: For Letter Words

Posted on May 9, 2026 by Top Pun

Here is a funny little poem for today…

For Letter Words

LOVE is a four-letter word
Accept for a spell be
And of coarse
Barring those
Who are staggeringly bad spillers

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POEM: Opening Up

Posted on May 8, 2026 by Top Pun

This poem is a reflection on the comfort I take in that light dispels darkness more naturally than dark dispelling light…

Opening Up

He was afraid
Too open
The box
Having herd
Of Pandora and such
He was heartened
Too here
That which tends
Too happen
Opening up
Boxes unknown
And weighing such situations
Is that light is favored
In emanating, dispelling dark
And not so much the other way
A graceful inclination
In the gravity of things

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POEM: A Wiled Woman

Posted on May 7, 2026 by Top Pun

Here is the ekphrastic poem (based on another work of art) that I submitted as this year’s entry to the Toledo Museum of Art’s poetry contest. I won by not winning, maintaining my amateur status. This poem is in honor of awe of the wild women out there…

Tapestry with Wild Woman Riding a Unicorn

Tapestry with Wild Woman Riding a Unicorn by Gilles Le Castre, Flemish, about 1500–25.

A Wiled Woman

She lives
In what
Might be called
Common daze
When she counters a seemingly fierce lyin’
Dwelling in the forced
Scaring smaller creatures
When she vouches fore awe of the earth
The soul point of being
A beautiful unicorn
Is having no need of a “permit”
As there is only won
I ride on
Uncorrected

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POEM: Cheeto Wrapper

Posted on May 6, 2026 by Top Pun

Yo yo, the Bully-in-chief is still vying for a Nobel Peace Prize…

Cheeto Wrapper

Cheeto President TrumpYo yo
We’re on the brink
Of total permanent peace
Or absolute annihilation
Yo yo
We interrupt this dark spectacle
The live theater of war
With that cliché rustle
Of the Cheeto wrapper
Yo yo
Pain know tension
Too The Man™
Up to his elbow in an empty bag
And stained hands
Mumbling sum thing a bout
It is just
Annoys

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POEM: Rooting for Light

Posted on May 5, 2026 by Top Pun

The darkest nights produce the brightest stars…

Rooting for Light

Firmly planted
In the hole, why’d whirled
He found himself
Going to dark places
Awe ^ the more ^ sow
As baring the lighten dark

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