NIGHT SITTING AT THE HERMITAGE after KRIS HEMENSLEY/ for KRIS HEMENSLEY

What is trapped in the streetlight
is a solitary figure
yet he sits with all beings
in the ten directions
there are no sudden moves
or gesticulations
other than the occasional 
twirling of a flower.

In the hermitage
we sit by day
and by night
we are aware of our breaths
but we do not count them.

Today i
went to the beach
in case there were fishermen
i did not have a lady beside me
but i had my bicycle to lean on.

Tonight i
sit quietly
there is a full moon
and a sky full of stars
i long for my bed
to sleep and to give
my dreams free reign.

i light my lantern
as they do in Antibes
and climb the stairs...
*
bernard hemensley @ Goldy Hermitage
2 a.m. 31st. july 2015
*********************

For 40-odd years i have felt ill-will towards CHRISTMAS HUMPHRIES, who, at the 1971 Summer School of THE BUDDHIST SOCIETY, of which he was the PRESIDENT, or was it the CHAIRMAN? Anyway, he was a HIGH-COURT JUDGE, to boot and answered my questioning after his lecture on ZEN, that, FOR SUCH PEOPLE THERE WILL BE NO MORE SUMMER SCHOOLS! The "problem" was that i was looking to hear something practical, and he was talking as an academic....today ZEN...yesterday TIBETAN....i became entangled between this and that as a "young" 23-year-old...unheeding of my friend's mother's injunction to stick to poetry, for now, i conflated different systems. 44 years later, travelling back from DORCHESTER to WEYMOUTH, on the NUMBER 10 BUS,this evening, i realised that the great confirmation and encouragement i felt, at that time, by the JAPANESE MONK saying = DON'T LISTEN TO THAT MAN, regarding HUMPHRIES, as we sat side-by-side before after-lunch-meditation, was misplaced. For 44 years i held-on to DON'T LISTEN TO THAT MAN. But Chrismas Humphries was correct. i never did go to the BUDDHIST SUMMER SCHOOL again, out of choice. And the Japanese Monk was also correct = BE A LAMP UNTO YOURSELF. [Golden Goji Hermitage : 18 / JULY / 2015]