The Treasures of Dunhuang: Performance Version

[1]

a faceless buddha
.

a black buddha
.

buddhas with silver mustaches
& chin hairs
.

three transvestite buddhas
.

buddha with heads
around his head –
dozens of whirling heads
.

2000 buddhas
.

crouching buddha –
slits for eyes –
looks sleepy
.

a buddha with a dozen faces
& a thousand hands with eyes
.


Buddha holds a fern –
he wears a scabbard
& the scabbard grows a hand
.

rays stream from buddha’s eyes
– or tears
.

eyes wide in terror
open anguished mouth with fangs
he holds a dish with flaming ryes
but haloed

can this be buddha too?
.

thin buddha
starving buddha

sitting hand to chin
& smiling


[2]

a meditating buddha
a practicing buddha
a preaching buddha
an enlightened buddha
a thinking buddha

a musing buddha
a performing buddha
a didactic buddha
an irradiated buddha
a pragmatic buddha

an absentminded buddha
a fabricating buddha
an authoritative buddha
a radioactive buddha
an obstinate buddha

an oblivious buddha
a counterfeit buddha
an imperative buddha
a degenerate buddha
a disobedient buddha

a paralyzed buddha
a vicarious buddha
a tyrannical buddha
an apostate buddha
an anarchical buddha

an anarchical buddha
a disobedient buddha
an obstinate buddha
a pragmatic buddha
a thinking buddha

an apostate buddha
a degenerate buddha
a radioactive buddha
an irradiated buddha
an enlightened buddha

a tyrannical buddha
an imperative buddha
an authoritative buddha
a didactic buddha
a preaching buddha

a vicarious buddha
a counterfeit buddha
a fabricating buddha
a performing buddha
a practicing buddha

a paralyzed buddha
an oblivious buddha
an absentminded buddha
a musing buddha
a meditating buddha


[3]

a buddha behind bars
.

black buddha face
with marble eyes
.

five bodhisattvas
in a row
each with a flower
.

how big this buddha’s hands are
.

buddha’s palms
lie open
waiting for stigmata
.

two buddhas sit together
one without a forearm
one without a hand
.

guardians
with knotted muscles
on their chests

a lion face
upraised
& baying

buddha
like a warrior
in armor
.

a giant painted
buddha

his hands that look
like feet

his feet
gargantuan

push past the garment’s
fringes

beneath the image of
a dragon

& a snake
.

the buddha on the right
is dark with age

an old man’s face
& bald

what does he know of man’s fate
or of woman’s?
.

beyond the door
buddha lies dying
a choir of mourning monks
behind him
.

a paradise of buddhas

everlasting bliss

[The lines & stanzas, above, are a shortened & reconstituted version, intended for performance, of the full series, “Treasures of Dunhuang” that are part of my larger gathering, China Notes & the Treasures of Dunhuang,” published by Ahadada Books in 2006. What overwhelmed me. after a visit to the 100 or so caves of Dunhuang filled with Buddhist art & writings & located in the Gobi Desert, was the surprising twist given to images that we thought of as familiar – much like images of Jesus when one sees them in out-of-the-way regions of the Christian world. I had long had in mind, & more so recently, perceptions about the nature of poetry enunciated by poets like Novalis – “The art of estranging in a given way, making a subject strange and yet familiar and alluring, this is romantic poetics” -- & referential too, I thought, to how we come at poetry today.

[A traditional version of Buddha images -- equally or more surprising -- can be found in the Poems and Poetics posting for August 5, 2008. (J.R.)]