Chris Bradshaw

Your voice is the best music
I've ever heard
I could listen for hours
And not hear a word
...

The snowfall tonight
Is surpassing beautiful
Like a lover's confession
Carried gently on the the wind
...

Sing me a song
About the way Autumn smells
After a scorching summer
When the clouds are as gray
...

I found a little diamond
In the gutter, out walking
Shining bright in it's squalor
Proud and indifferent
...

Some go out for family
Others seeking fame
But what I'm running after
Flows on without a name
...

I found you on the forest path
Sitting quietly by a stream
And when I asked for wise direction
You spoke words as from a dream:
...

To pay his way
Some people say
A man must be
Not one, but three
...

Your name is written down here
On this broken piece of wood
I carved it out in silence
To hold you longer than I should
...

It wasn't the way we met
Though I remember it well
Spring nights like velvet
And your voice, wine colored
...

I knew I understood
When words lost their meaning
And symbols fell silent
...

I can scarcely imagine
What joy a mountain feels
Heaven reaching
While rooted deep
...

Today I ate three meals
And walked without fear
Along crowded streets
Too busy to hear
...

A very good lesson
Is the one about the box
To illustrate emptiness
Consider it's function
...

All children can see the dharma
Being never hidden
From innocent eyes
Neither obscured
...

Because life changes too fast
For our slow longings
I want you to know
That here
...

When I first saw the ocean
Standing in the waning light
Of an east coast evening
It seemed to me a dead thing
...

They told me everything
As if they knew
Confidently blind
And floating on lies
...

Thousands are born in the morning
A thousand more die under the moon
What kind of teacher is war?
...

How long is this going to last?
She cried, but could not comprehend
The last vestiges of his tired affection
And now she's left to wonder
...

Saying nothing, our eyes betray
Simple truths of separation
Subterranean promises
And long nights in the city
...