My Own Garden

for Namkhai Norbu

by LLL

                         The
              Visionary landscape
        what you described, attract-
      ed my perimeter, (until) I discov-
  ered I had my own garden  to penetrate.
 
      Water was the key elementl
    Then fire, after that the AIR was
       my dominion & I flew where I
         wished to fly. This or that
           heaven, the hell realms
              were also interesting.
 
                     One
                day I met my
             Master, at that mo-
        ment heaven & hell ceased
      To exist, even the dragon fly
       knew she cld. transcend
                their opposition.
 
 
                       ii
 
                         I
                had no interest
              in prizes or in the
          configurations of the great
       metropolis. My heart lay in yr. hand
              from the day forward.
 
 
                       iii
 
                      When
                   you died, even
               great beings like you
             can not keep company w.
           lesser ones, like me, for long
                                forever
 
                                          or
                                              is
                                                  forever
 

                                                    NOW?      
 
                                              Are
                                                   you
                                                          here
 
                                           In my breath & in my
                                    confusion, are you here on the
                                        pedestal of the beautiful?
 
 
                                                     iv
 
                                         The insects cured me
                                   of my infidelity, the moss my
                                                 stepping
                                                   stone.
 
 
Kyoto 2025

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Louise Landes Levi

Poet and performer, translator and traveler, Louise Landes Levi was born in New York City, studied at the University of California and traveled to India, over land, in the late 60’s. Her works on India—RASA by René Daumal and Sweet on My Lips: The Love Poems of Mirabai—are still in print.

An itinerant scholar and iconoclast, Levi continues to publish, self-publish, write and wander, translating when requested or inspired, and performing in a wide variety of venues in USA, EU, and Japan. Interviews and reviews are online at Otoliths, Big Bridge, The Brooklyn Rail, The Mirror & Wire and at the Cool Grove Press web site.