This is Haibun, a form created by the famous Haiku poet, Basho. It consists of 1-3 paragraphs of prose poem in first person and ends with a haiku that sums up or relates to the narrative prose. Themes are travel, time, and place. American Haibun is less rigid in its requirements, but I liked the challenge of the traditional form. I recently had to opportunity to stay at a retreat center in Colorado and this poem arose from the experience. If you're curious about Chod, here's a link to my article: 

https://www.spiritualityhealth.com/feeding-your-demons

photo credit: Sylwia Bartyzel, Unsplash 

Upon Encountering a Ghost at Red Jewel Mountain Monastery

My winter solstice sanctuary is a one-room guest house behind the Buddhist temple where raveling prayer flags beseech the wind. I hobble the stoney path between here and there, to meet the nuns. We practice Chöd, feeding our demons in an ancient Tibetan ritual of drums, bells, chants, and visions. 

I’ve spoken only once to the wine-robed women this week, so perhaps that’s the reason an old young lover visits in a morning dream. He folds his slender white body over mine like a blanket; he curls against my spine as if it were possible to warm himself. Why do I apologize to him, after all these years, when it should be the other way around?

Peaceful and Wrathful

Deities stare down from the walls

All of them are me