A Vision of the Bodhisattvas
They pass before me one by one riding on animals
"What are you waiting for," they want to know
Z—, young as he is (& mad into the bargain) tells me
"Some day you'll drop everything & become a rishi, you know."
I know
The forest is there, I've lived in it
More certainly than this town? Irrelevant—
What am I waiting for?
A change in customs that will take 1000 years to come about?
Who's to make the change but me?
"Returning again and again," Amida says
Why's that dream so necessary? walking out of whatever house alone
Nothing but the clothes on my back, money or no
Down the road to the next place the highway leading to the
mountains
From which I absolutely must come back
What business have I to do that?
I know the world and I love it too much and it
Is not the one I'd find outside this door.
Copyright Credit: Philip Whalen, "A Vision of the Bodhisattvas" from The Collected Poems of Philip Whalen copyright © 2007 by Brandeis University Press and reprinted by permission of Wesleyan University Press. www.wesleyan.edu/wespress
Source: The Collected Poems of Philip Whalen (Wesleyan University Press, 2007)