To Hold Infinity in the Eyelids
Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem
The carved Buddha lies,
His eyelids in a straight line
To infinities.
~ Seiho [Englished by Phillip Whidden]
Do straight lines lead to two infinities,
To height and depth, or maybe more, to right
And left; if angled, to divinities
Encompassing all darkness and all light,
Eternity stretched out in every way?
If Buddha stands straight upright in his stone
Configuration, two horizons weigh
At either end but each is in a zone
Too far away to understand. The farthest space
Beyond the stars, where stars and mass all end,
Becomes a dizzying, eternal place
That thoughts and feelings cannot apprehend.
If this be true of Buddha’s endless ends,
