Category Archives: Annapurna Sunrise

cycle of poems inspired by Pokhara and Ghandruk, Nepal 2016 – mostly written while staying at an Ayurvedic clinic or in Himalayan village

Buddha Annapurna – Annapurna Sunrise

annapurna - buddha - blue buddha lake

Buddha Annapurna

There was already a full moon
And a snowy peak behind
Then you read from Buddha
Reminding all to be kind

Respect is key to happiness
Giving away leads to wealth
Think kind thoughts about others
To enjoy your own fine health

Simple truths from Gautama
About the middle way
Passed down through sutras
Seekers chanting each new day

I often wonder how it feels
To sit under a single tree
A seed a day towards enlightenment
The mind roams peaceful and free

In the village I wander
Maybe treading in his step
Humble confident and searching
To the others, offering help

annapurna - buddha - young boys

Holy Donkeys – Annapurna Sunrise

annapurna - donkey

They’ve walked this path
So many times now
With others much like you
Sandals or rubber boots
Packs filled unnecessarily

Donkey trains bring water jugs
Propane to the cook fires
Gee and haw along the trail
Simply follow the one in front
Who allegedly knows the way

Indeed lead mule walks simply
By intuition and repetition
And even muscle memory
Towards the sun in the morning
Downhill in afternoon

Do they call each other cousins?
Parents, friends or kin?
Or are they a collective without ego
Ritual or sin?

A collective hauling comfort
Up to rustic places
Nodding along with the rhythm
Not even bothered to
Glances backwards at your faces

annapurna - donkeys - boys

Forgotten Village – Annapurna Sunrise

The cook pot is blackened
But you easily clean up the mess
With gritty river mud scraped
From your stream of consciousness

Wander up an invisible path
Even the elders don’t know it
Chasing a mysterious girl
Named after an ancient poet

I can’t see her footprints
But I see her shining eye
In the constellations high
Above the blue night sky

Reflection in the mountain lake
Shows me growing worn
But I blink three times quickly
And see that I’m reborn

There’s wisdom plainly hidden
On the edge of mountain cliffs
Stories shared by ancients
Around campfires, becoming myths
Books don’t capture the secrets
For truth look deep into teacups

In this forgotten village
They’re made of bone and marrow
Stubborn as a donkey
Rugged as the buffalo
Giving love like sacred Amma

Monk chants echo through valleys
Low, soft and precise
Repeated through centuries
Many times ever since
Taught by a lost wanderer
With no interest in being found

Prayer flags amplify
Take noble words higher
Attenuate on a frequency
Improbable to detect by wire

I will always return here
Flying high like a hawk or sparrow
Won’t tell you the village name
You find it when you’re able

The maps might give a clue
But not the right directions
You’ll only find the magic
By following inner vision

In the forgotten village
This village is forgotten
Deliberately mistaken
Not meant for finding
Books reveal their secrets
Obvious in endless myth
Your own forgotten village

annapurna - village - house

Peaks – Annapurna Sunrise

Peaks

So many came from overseas
Seeking adrenaline and light
Colored bags filled with dreams and schemes
Forgetting to slow down right

When everyone’s a guide
There’s no one left to lead
There’s power in independence
But more in empathy

Don’t underestimate compassion
Because when walls coming quaking down
If you’ve given freely
Then you always will be found

Don’t think about reaching peaks
Where others have died unfulfilled
Find your own distant summit
Gaze up from the greenest field

Morning, Pokhara – Annapurna Sunrise

Morning, Pokhara

Morning, Pokhara

Farmer calls to the cow, gently
Corralled in a stonewalled fence

Mother calls her child from an open door
Time for a freshwater cold bath

Labourers scrape broken bricks over the edge
To collide with roof of corrugated tin

Birds call and puff splendid plumes
Demonstrating their innate biologic worth

Trekking guides ply for determined hikers
With different dreams of dizzy altitudes

Cafeman tempts the passers-by
With steamed milk tea and German pastries

Boatman sits quietly with paddle
Ticketbook ready to ply to the lake

The foreign lady talks more loudly
Convinced she’ll be more understood

Dogs yap at movements all through the night
Vigilance unnecessary in this dewy hour

Roosters ritually announce another day
Repeating proclamations well into afternoon

Trucks honk repeatedly for someone
Anyone… to open the rusty metal gate

The black-haired girl sweeps stairs routinely
Her distinct action – whisking dust before polishing

The Stupa gazes quietly from atop the hill
Tea houses lead the way to certain inner-peace

The hotel open doors pleased for patrons
But remembering the days before…

Annapurna and her cousins hide behind clouds and mist
Only revealing peaks when fully dressed

A lonely man seeks a barber to trim a shaggy face
Possibly reveal a timid smile

Morning, Pokhara

Annapurna Sunrise – Annapurna Sunrise

annapurna sunrise - annapurna, sunrise

Annapurna Sunrise

A sunrise isn’t just a sunrise
Each a unique event
The dawning a new circumstance
Unknown since yesterday

Sun glances off the glaciers
Bells on buffaloes provide the song
Your own personal time lapse
Just remember how to breathe

Jagged peaks like ripsaws
Loom over soft curved paddies
Village with rocky pathways
Laid down in olden days

Ridgeline too high for goats
Who would rather look away
Down valleys filled with grasses
Occasionally find a berry

Unaware of their varied fates
Living only for the now, knowing
Can’t control how long you live
Only your present tense

Each day
Lived in anger and greed?
Or fill each
with vast abundance?

Today is not a photograph
Or another dress rehearsal
For a foretold mystic afterlife
In which you are an exalted master

You are given gifts each day
Of beauty, challenge and hope
Hard times bring lessons
Unrequested by conscious self

The glowing dawn brings new noises
Into your tiny universe
Children resist cold washing
While Grandmas fill steel mugs

Buffalo and yaks are elder siblings
Calm, strong and helpful
Giving milk and fuel each day
To people, without expectation

Maybe you’ll bring them fresh hay
Maybe they’ll find some alone
Unimpressed by your shiny toys and colours
Needs kept more elemental
Warmth, food and rest
Content with two as an option

Each house climbs higher
Up the mountain slope
Precarious and sturdy
On each leans a chimney
Releasing pungent smoke

The humans slip outside
Tasks to do, Gods to please
Receive blessings of beauty
Tomorrow, clouds might roll back in
Savour while you are able

Cold water bath for each tiny kid
Strengthen them for future days
Aiding dreams of others
Serve all but not servant to none

Do not mistake diligence with complacency
Lo the free-flying hawks
Wings may appear the tools
The a clean mind does the flying

Simple kindness the underrated virtue
Honesty brings clear respect
Clockwise round the massif
Chanting all the while

Prayer bells go anti-counter-clockwise
Or is it the opposite?
Spin it wrong, good still comes
When done with the right intentions

annapurna sunrise prayer wheels