Poems?

[ShaolinDan]

Okay. I consider poetry (writing and reading) a 'meditation,' however, I will completely understand if this thread is moved off topic. (I'll also understand if it's stickied ) I'm also under the impression it's got some kind of relationship with kung fu (along the lines of calligraphy as expressed in Gene's article). It's all about metaphors, man.

So here is an invitation for forum members to post their own writing (poetry/ or short prose?) or short writing by others that they really like.

I'm going to try to stick with a martial or meditative (preferably both) theme, but you do what you want.

Here's a poem I used to read a lot at open mics about ten years ago. I didn't study kung fu yet, but I still had the 'glow.'

The Giant and The Star

Barking dog
calling bird
falling leaf
twinkling star
I don't wonder what you are.

A rotting log
of moon bark birch
and out of reach
a falling star,
I have no wish that I can have.

Red wood see-saw
we sit and bounce and lurch
and kick our feet
to catch some air
And my only wish is that we never had to drop.

So I don't wish for nothing.
Not an ear; not a cob
not an eye; not a word
not a whisper; not a grief
not a wish; nothing far.

Twinkle twinkle little star
do you wonder what I am?

Little thing with such big eyes
little thing with a mind that pries
little thing that split the atom
little thing that sprang from Adam
little wing that soars so high
that kisses heaven beyond the sky
little wing whose wish is giants
little wing that is its wish.

The giant lives in crawling ants
the giant lies in sifting sand
he bears the weight of time's cruel dance
the giant lives inside a song
in paper page and plastic pen
the giant draws his sword and then
see how easy small rights wrong.

The giant hears the barking dog; he is is friend
he hears the calling bird; he sings to him
he whispers to the falling leaf; it died for him
he sees the twinkling star and cries; but doesn't wish
he knows just where he stands and what he gets is his.

The giant sighs and goes to sleep
the see-saw drops
let another giant rise and speak.


Well, that's the poem, come on giants, let's hear where you've gone too!
(And for anyone who's suspected me for living in a kung fu fantasy, well, here's your proof. )
[why do I feel like this is something I'm going to regret in the morning?...yes, I did have a couple ...]

[ShaolinDan]

I'm a little surprised, but I don't regret it. However, 16 views in 30 hours? You guys really don't like poetry do you?

It's probably just that all the poets party all weekend.

I'll post a really bad poem. Maybe that will help encourage you.
It's the poem I've written that's most directly related to my training (true story--I needed stitches--I can be a little clumsy)

Shaolin Staff

The staff says, "I can carry you,
And I can carry water.
I can hold you up,
And I can knock you down."
My hand says, "i love you."

The sword says, 'I can cut."
My finger is bleeding.

The gun says,
"Didn't you learn your lesson from the sword?"

[ShaolinDan]

Summoning the Devil

Dark and secret words are whispered
To the dying moon,
Black and evil birds come winging
Messages of doom.

The silver eye amid the sky
Closes on the night,
The shadows come and cluster by
For company in fright.

The spell's been cast, the Devil's loose
Here amid the stars,
With all Hell's band of screaming ghouls
wielding electric guitars.

Go to your home and lock the door
Pray for the moon to come,
Get on your knees and bow to the floor,
Your golden day is done.

'Cause the Devil's come on back from Georgia
And he's ****ed as Hell about that fiddle,
He's come to make your whole lives torture
Unless you can solve his riddle.

What's black and white and gray all over
And goes around and round,
What's made of devils and of gods
and soon becomes a clown?

What brings the night, what brings the day
What makes them always fade away,
What brings the winter, what the summer
What says that spring shall never stay?

What power makes the spells I cast
Hold you for a moment fast,
What power makes the spells all fade,
Why can't they ever last?

What wears down mountains and builds them up
But out waits time itself,
What drags men to their weary graves
Then lifts them up to dance and shout?

What riddle answers every question
Of what and who and how,
And mixes up both Hell and Heaven
To craft the world we live in now?

I'd tell you but it would not help
So you'll just have to wait,
Until you learn not to cry and yelp
At the twisting of your fate.

And with those words the devil turns
And smiles back towards home,
So long as in your heart a question burns
I know my work is done,
So long as in your heart a question burns
I know you'll need my poems.

[TenTigers]

there once was a monk from Nantucket......

[Lucas]

The Scythians ~ Alexandr Blok

….Come to us ~ from your battlefield nightmares
into our peaceful arms! While there’s
still time, hammer your swords into ploughshares,
friends, comrades! We shall be brothers!

If you do not, we have nothing to lose.
Our faith, too, can be broken.
You will be cursed for centuries, centuries,
by your descendants’ sickly children!

We shall take to the wilds and the mountain
woods, letting beautiful Europe through,
and as we move into the wings shall turn
an Asiatic mask to you.

March all together, march to the Urals!
We clear the ground for when the armoured
juggernauts with murder in their sights
meet the charge of the mongol horde.

We shall ourselves no longer be your shield,
no longer launch our battlecries;
but study the convulsive battlefield
from far off through our narrow eyes!

We shall not stir when the murderous Huns
pillage the dead, turn towns to ash,
in country churches stable their squadrons,
and foul the air with roasting flesh.

Now, for the last time, see the light, old world!
To peace and brotherhood and labor ~
our bright feast ~ for the last time you are called
by the strings of a Scythian lyre!

[ShaolinDan]

"Whose staff was so long.."

Thanks Lucas, that was a good one.

Anyone? ... ?

[ShaolinDan]

This one's dedicated to all the Taoist masters out there.

Questions for the Know-It-All

Where are we going now?
What are you trying to get to?
Do you long for the future
Or the past?
Do you long for luxury or love or lust
Or lucidity or loss
Or gain or grain or grace?
Can one be free and gracious simultaneously?
Mustn't we be free to be horrible
To be free at all?
Or when we look for freedom
Do we really just want freedom from the horrible?

Ask Congress.
They'll tell you straight what you want.
A blanket, a bed, a microwave,
A baby, a babysitter, a television,
Canned food, boxed food, frozen food, condensed food,
Re-hydrated dehydrated food from concentrate.

Now that we have enough to eat,
What are we going to look for?
Now that food is found in overabundant superstore,
Listed alphabetically and coded in glaring color,
How will we spend our days?

Picking trees is passe,
Digging roots is dead,
Baking bread is only for the rich banker's wives
And why?

Why have we spent all this time
Manufacturing time
In time saving devices
Which do things
We used to want to do
So we can have free time
To do nothing
And watch the tube.

We've taken all our pastimes away
Made them all passe
Watch out,
Even sex is on it's way out next
Cyber girls with electric curls
And a heated vibrating box.

Who needs love?
Who needs metaphysical interpersonal transcendental contact?

I am self-contained,
Man of the future
With an unbounded brain.

Whew!

Is that what we want?
Independence, isolation,
the freedom to be horrible without restraint?

Do we have a choice?

So many choices we can't decide
How to separate our life from our lives.
How do we paint a fate that's all our own
And not paint ourselves into a corner
All alone,
Isolate within the swirling symbols
Running to computer from the phone (shows how long ago I wrote this one)
And on and into
Our empty waiting brain anticipating
Some new brief entertainment
Another thirty seconds of commercial
To avoid the main program.

Which is what?
I'm still wondering.

Is peace, peace
Or a piece of war?

Can we be still
Or must it all break down in motion?

Is life eternal like the sea
Or rolling like the ocean?

Am I, I
Or am I you?
Is there a Walrus?
(coo coo cachoo)

Where are we going to go now?

Let's go somewhere we can find consensus
Or else agree to wallow in our senselessness,
But either way,
If life is all meaning
Or meaning is all lies
Let's agree to let the tigers lie
And let's concede-

That no one here knows nothing
Unless we know it all.

[ShaolinDan]

Well, what follows is probably the best I've ever done, and the best I can foresee myself ever doing.

The muse is gone, or rather, busy with other things, and so is the fire of youth. Hope somebody can enjoy this anyway, no sense just letting it gather dust. Might as well give it.

Dedicated to the Dead Head Warriors out there.

The Emerald of Ellessadi
The ballad of a mind-expanding jewel.

The Emerald of Ellessadi
Was brought on gleaming steed;
A hundred miles traveled I
Into the land of need,

Bearing the mighty treasure bought
In secret at a price,
From a wizard—who if was caught,
Would be enchained for life.

Ah-But in secret and with speed,
I came through our dark night,
Into our desperate land of need--
Bearing the gem of light.

It's gleam I buried in my coat,
Lest wrong eyes catch its glow;
My heart beat at a quickened note
To think what it might show.

The Emerald of Ellessadi,
It bears eternal truth
The wisdom of the truly free,
Which makes all bonds fall loose.

Yea-For this boon I grew most brave,
It was the light in dark
The light to free the mental slave,
One true explosive spark.

Thus the legend had it,
I prayed the legend true-
Naught I knew of other magic
Could cure a poisoned view.

So for this gem I risked it all,
Fought law and thief and soul
Because I felt an inward call
For knowledge of the whole.

Into the land of Need I rode
And there I stowed my steed,
Then to my closest friend's abode
I made with stealth and speed.

'Assemble the companions,
I have with me the gem!'
Now at last we had the weapon
To sever us from them.

The companions were assembled,
The sacred rights performed,
And there before the emerald
Our vision was transformed.

With a subtle steady rising
Of liquid energy
Our minds became alive again,
Our eyes began to see.

Remember seeing everything
That lay around the room,
How every object seemed to sing
Of life beyond the gloom.

And all that sang it also danced
To rhythms in my blood,
And everywhere my new I glanced
I saw that life was good.

Where was the evil that had lurked
Within our glory minds?
Gone were shadows that made us shirk
Our love of being kind.

For the evil lay within us
And everything around;
It made our actions poisonous,
Our souls hide underground.

It drove our vision 'hind a veil,
It drove it their in fear;
It made all worldly colors pale
To hide the beauty there.

It made it seem as if 'twas night
Though fact 'twas it was day;
As if we each shared separate plights
And none could feel our way.

But sitting in the company,
With emerald in my blood,
I saw they all could also see
That everything is good.

A strange illusion we did find
Had made us play the fool;
We saw the puppet strings of mind
When we unlocked the jewel.

Our fear had pulled us this a way
Our doubt had pulled us that,
No hope had led us all astray,
The emerald called us back.

It emptied us of all the lies
The evil wizards told;
It brought youth back into our eyes,
It trimmed the world in gold.

And everything was fresh and new
And everything still is
And wonder is a drop of dew
The morning sun's a kiss.

The veil was raised, my eyes are clear
The world has been remade--
Every living thing is dear
And every boulder brave.

I hear the song that all things sing
I thrill to see them dance;
My mind is a protective ring
That makes of life, romance.

Should evil stand within my path
I need not be afraid,
For I now know the sacred math
Where good from evil's made.

How one and one can still be one,
In mind before the fall;
Math is perfect in the garden
Where one is part of all.

How bright are stars without the night?
What's freedom without slaves?
In knowing peace one must know fright;
To love, we need the grave.

Everything is what it should be,
The shadows bless the light;
The scales are balanced equally,
The bad gives good its might.

The terror that we thought would drown
Us and all this world,
Is half of what makes life profound--
The ocean holds the pearl.

So when the emerald ceased to glow
But still our faces did,
We all made sacred binding vow
To show the world what's hid.

And thus it is I write these lines,
Thus darkness held at bay,
And thus it is man may recline
At any time of day.

For the wizards will not own us,
The wizards will not rule,
So long as one true heart has trust
In visions from the jewel.

So long as one eye does not see
A dying world of gloom,
So long as one eye is still free,
There's hope alongside doom.

Thus the emerald made me notice,
Om Mani Padme Hum
The Jewel is in the Lotus
Everything and everyone.

My message is for you my friend
For all of man must know,
Nothing keeps us from the garden
Our heart is where it grows.

To enter we need only look
At skies, at trees, at birds,
To read the garden like a book
Just revel in its words.

[No_Know]

In the first book (written by Sifu Leung Ting) i found the following:

ou - hook
lou - grapple
tsai - pluck
kwa - upward block
tiao-chin - go forward AFTER intercept
peng ta - chop
chan - contact
nien - cling
tieh - tag
kao - lean
chien-chan - dodge
teng nuo -bounce

and a very interessting note:

In the twelve-keyword Formula, the keywords ou, lou, tsai, kwa, chan, nien, tieh and kao are commonly acknowledged by martial artists of NPM, while the rest four keywords vary in terminology among different branches and individual practitioners.

For this reason, some martial artists of the 7* PM agree that the 12 KW Verbal formula should be o,l,t,k,Tiao(Intercept), Chin(go forward), Peng (Chop), Ta (attack), c,n,t and kao. As for the techniques of chien-shan and teng nuo, they are not included in the 12 KW Formula!

However, the author, after having discussed with Sifu Lee Kam Wing and searching into lots of available sources, finds that there are doubts about the terminology of the above 12 KW, which do not cover the scope of the techniques of the system. that is why we prefer the set of 12 KW as described and explained in the book by the author, bearing in mind that this is the personal idea of the author himself, and does not represent the opinion of all the practitioners of the 7* PM or other branches of Northern PM!

My note: the author was Leung Ting!

I'll use ou, lou, tsai, kwa, tien, kao, teng nou... --hook, grapple, pluck, upward block, chop, cling, lean

Hook-Grapple-Pluck
The fish bit hard;
I struggled to remove the hook;
only holding tight
could it be removed.
-Ernie Moore Jr.

Ou lou tsai was tghe first grouping I'd seen/studied in the green book by Dr. Leung Ting. The fish bit allows me to introduce the image of a hook. Not only that but to remove a well stuck hook might required to hold the fish strongly-firmly.--secure the arm because you are transferring grips. Only then could it be removed goes to only after you've got the arm checked~should you pull...actually pull as you begin to grip then continue thatmomentum~Removal stands-in for Pluck.

No_Know

Block-Chop
Cutting wood,
my hands well spaced;
a tree branch fell,
unhurt I split the wood.
-Ernie Moore Jr.

Upward block like Karate or the bottom hand when using an axe to chop wood. In the storytheraisd axe blocked gettinghit from a falling branch which is referring to deflecting an upper body/head punch. Having blocked(deflected)one can continue the attackwithadownwardstrike--thedefensewasa motion prep for the initial attack attempt...Thje timing here can vary to the telling of the story/scene yet the elements are there for block during/before attack, one might hope.

Cling
I got peanut butter on me
and even when I removed it
that stuck to me.
-Ernie Moore Jr.
Peanutbutter is sticky. Removing it still leaves what you removed sticking to the removal tool--I might think of cling as gum on the shoe or peanut butter...stick to the next thing.

No_Know

[ShaolinDan]

Hook-Grapple-Pluck
The fish bit hard;
I struggled to remove the hook;
only holding tight
could it be removed.
-Ernie Moore Jr.



Block-Chop
Cutting wood,
my hands well spaced;
a tree branch fell,
unhurt I split the wood.
-Ernie Moore Jr.


Cling
I got peanut butter on me
and even when I removed it
that stuck to me.
-Ernie Moore Jr.

Thanks. Those were perfect.

[No_Know]

Hwah

I was running through the jungle gauntlet
There were two tigers at the end.
Alternating, leaping in tight unison
One attacked as the other would defend.
The last thing I recall-
One sound made three times.
-Ernie Moore Jr.

Cloud Hands-Single Whip

Drop, Catch, Overturn, Throw;
Leaving some behind, I move forward.
Wafting clouds advancing sideways
Shouldering the shifting weight of leading the way.
Bird strikes through breaking clouds.
Dispersing clouds clear the way.
-Ernie Moore Jr.

Hwa-one of five classical sounds for health but associated with particular striking. My comprehend-Hwa goes with tiger claw strike. There seems to be a consecutive tiger claw move where some might breathe that sound for each strike. Hwa Hwa Hwa. Note: mh h is not broken like someones earlier post missing two h's. The Chinese would be written Hwa. To pronounce the poem closer to correct without knowing the Chinese I added h [end note]. The clawprotects the elbow and the forearms are close during striking.

Cloud hands has a shifting repeating handthinthat's like one hand drops something and the other catches it, turns it over and makes a throwing action. The forward moving is done sideways. It feels as though theslight shifting step intereaction could be a shoulderstrik like breaking down a door in some movies.

Single Whipuses what I see as cranes beak (3 or 5 fingers). It comes down like diving birds of prey or attack choppers from the best kill point attack angle arial fighting. And the rest is a sweeping move clearing attacks or the such whatever.

No_Know

[No_Know]

There are two types of snakes
One strikes; one coils.
The striker coils, but not that good.
The coiler strikes, but only good enough.
Either can win in h er/is own element.
The winner can loose when the looser brings friends.
But in this case, striking brings the end.
-Ernie Moore Jr.

Royce Gracie would bat and feint or Hail-Mary jab or throw a punch. A Striker might wrestle in the situation but it was scarce to have one that could complete a finishing move.

A striker could prevent a grappler from getting in but can likely be outsmarted/outmaneuvered by the grappler.

The grappler could mix-it-up-with a striker and take a hit to begin the coil--anaconda-endgame.

Grappling as we know it-Train it globally is a focus, as boxing--Sport one to one. Most fights can be forced to the ground/to grappling, and the best groundgame closer Nahhh! most efficient at that instant, wins.

However, if the striker has an associate (if I can suggest one let us accept a speculation of more than one) attending- the gang-up beats the grappler. And if the grappler has an associate (if I can suggest one let us accept a speculation of more than one) attending, the gang-up beats the striker. But note: the grappler gang will win with strikes.

One on one finishing grappling moves executed appropriately, the ground gamer with the most at the moment--skill, endurance, strength, agility, anticipation, environment useage, perception...Luck-wins. But All group sessions likely finish with strikes-for the most part[except for the post beat-up grapple of the beaten].

No_Know

[RickMatz]

Basho's frog went plop!
and never heard from again.
A snapping turtle.

[No_Know]

A Classical_________
Eight Trigrams Boxing
Single Palm Change__

One hand out.
One hand lower.
Facing center;
Walking round.

Sideways is forward,
Facing center.
Complete the circle
Prepare to enter.

Further coil
Cross down
Cross up.
Uncoil-alternate.

Step across
Close the path
Open behind you
Repeat the math.

Out of eight
This is one
Lift the foot
If you're Sun.
-Ernie Moore Jr.


One first practice in Pa Kua Ch'uan, supposedly is walking a circle. There seems to be coordinated movement in differing directions. Hopefully what is to be done--highlights, is in the poem.

At the end of walking one circle a person would shift forward momentum with a step/pivot of the leading foot inward of the body. This scrunches the core--torso-abdominal with a closing thigh/hip. There is a sinking perhaps to make this work. But as one practices general instructions I find that neuances and refinements towards excellence arediscovered. And how good you are more than recalling the keys of the technique while guided by your instructor, is exceeded by how many Easter Eggs one finds in practicing, or perhaps some such some might say...

The book I had where I am recalling to make-up this poem from might have indicated that one Master called Sun doing this standard move would use a leg-particularly the foot in what might be thought of as a jamming or stopping move more than a kick. However aforced-out jamming foot can actively challenge an opponent's stability or at least distract.

I appreciate a minimal instruction as to the great variance of potential techniques. Told less I can perhaps realize more. Told all you realized as specific situational applications-it's data I won't be able to process and apply in urgency and cripples me being dependent on needing it's exact use told to me. This stops me, in essence from exploring and there-by from discovering the more than one might have catalogued.

No_Know

[ShaolinDan]

Awesome. Knew I couldn't be the only one. Thanks for your contributions. Those are pretty cool No_Know... sort of neo-traditional...dig 'em.