Tathagata With Nine Eyes
© Surazeus
2026 01 30

When she travels back to land of her birth,
small island ever floating in blue mist,
she finds photos and relics of the past
as treasures that vibrate with psychic signs
containing spirits her ancestors beam
that preserve their memories in mute form.

When she opens old leather-covered book
to read poems her great-grandmother composed
concerning life of curious characters
who lived in village by the mountain lake,
dust of her long-vanished soul from the page
causes her to sneeze as she starts to cry.

Fragile photo with crumbling edges gleams
with gray fading ghost of the slender girl
wearing long batik skirt and white lace blouse
whose body aged and vanished long ago,
wrinkled and thin as long vine in moist heat,
eyes black with beauty of the midnight moon.

She rides Garuda halfway round the Earth
to visit village by the muddy stream
and walk in grove of old banana trees
where her ancestors lived six thousand years,
lush paradise now teeming with small cars
that crowd narrow roads in vast city maze.

She opens tin box hidden in the drawer
to find small jewel her ancestor found
eight hundred years ago one afternoon
when he was hunting demons in dark woods
on slope of Mount Semeru where swift birds
lead him to cavern of One-World God.

Enchanted by tune of the Gamelan
that rings with voice of Nyai Roro Kidul
in sun-gleaming temple of Achintya,
she ponders oneness of all deities
who emanate from supreme nothingness
to manifest multiple states of mind.

She feels glow deep in vastness of her heart
emptiness of truth that beams energy
composing all material forms of being,
so she takes new selfie with her eye-phone
and posts it on her social media site
to preserve ancestral soul of her heart.

Having worked her way up to state of love
for every creature living on this Earth,
she becomes Tathagata with nine eyes
as she glides gracefully on glowing clouds
when she returns home to Oconia
where she eats Batavia soup with her family.

surazeus.blogspot.com/2026/01/…

Orpheus kneels with Nyai Roro Kidul in temple of Saraswati who plays Veena and sings epic tale about the life of Rice Goddess Sri Dewi.

#Poetry #Poem #Pastoral #Necropastoral #MetaModernism #Transrealism #NewSublimity #NewRomanticism #AmericanDream #Cinemism #Existentialism #Surrealism #NegativeCapability #NewGnosticism #MetaRealism #NewTranscendentalism #Astarism