Sunyata (Sherry Priest)

Like everything I write, the poem is based on actual events in my life and was "triggered" by a conversation with a young woman who was pregnant with her first child. (Sherry Priest on the writing to "Sunyata")

Sunyata
Last week St. Bridget’s Day,
Fire and straw woven into crosses.
Ash Wednesday coming soon,
The last rite of the Church I could receive.
Holding my baby,
Ashes on his innocent forehead,
Black dust
Across the bridge of his nose
The truth plain.
Dust thou art and to dust thou shall return
No need to attach to sin,
No need to be redeemed.
The five skandhas are sunyata.
Feeling thought volition and consciousness likewise are like this.
Dust.
A wedding on Good Saturday.
I will bring a bottle of wine
And a brightly colored egg
For my friend the groom.
I will bottle my own vinegar for this day,
Whisper in his ear only that
I wish for them lots of fat babies
For me to play with
And then give back.
My babies now weave fire and straw
On their own.
So young a woman,
Carrying her first
Soon giving birth,
Says she feels too big.
Not at peace with her swollen belly
She does not yet understand
How big the work she does
She does not yet know
She is the vessel of creation.
And only the vessel.
Empty.

Sunyata.


Copyright Sherry Priest 2007


Author’s Notes

Sunyata – Sanskrit term for Buddhist concept, often translated as “emptiness” or “lack of permanence.”

St. Bridget’s Day – February first. St. Bridget is a patron Saint of Ireland, also of babies and midwifes, and linked to a Celtic goddess of fertility and fire associated with Imbolc.  St. Bridget’s crosses are woven of rushes and sometimes burned to protect homes from fire.

Dust thou art and to dust thou shall return–From the liturgy for Ash Wednesday

The five skandhas are sunyata.

Feeling thought volition and consciousness likewise are like this–From the Heart Sutra

Skandha – Sanskrit term for Buddhist concept, often translated as “aggregate” or “heap;” usually refers to the five elements of self, i.e., form, feeling, thought, volition, and consciousness.

lots of fat babies – A line from Firefly