Buddha
(After Rilke)

As if he listened. Quiet: something far...
We hold our breath, hearing it no longer.
And he is star. And there are other stars
that orbit him unseen by us, out yonder.

He is all. Would we in fact be pleased
if he took note? What use has he for us?
And if we knelt before him in the dust,
he'd still be deep and idle as a beast.

That energy before which we're abased
has circled through him for a million years.
He has forgotten everything we share
and drinks existence that we cannot taste.

Leonard Cottrell