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COMPARISONS
It was Henry Miller who said that the principal difference between a sage and a preacher is one thing: gaiety, and I suppose the same could be said of the difference between the monk and the wealthy man. It was in a small temple nestled in a courtyard of three office towers in the heart of…
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THE MESA, MIDNIGHT
The coyotes come down from the Sandia Hills onto the mesa. They are not spirits. They are not totems. They are not tricksters. They are hungry: for a jackrabbit, for a bird, for a small dog wandering too far from a half-lit earthship. They smell the sage, its faint odor carried on the night breeze. …
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MISSING PERSONS
I enter the station house and walk up to the neck high desk. I would like to report a missing person. I have been gone more than twenty-four hours. I can’t give a very good description, my eyes see in the mirror a still young man sitting in a park in Salt Lake City in…
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SNAKE EYES
Einstein said, and I assume he believed, that God didn’t play dice with the universe. Hawking disagreed, said God was an inveterate gambler and worse still he would not only throw the dice but he is so sarcastic that he would gladly confuse us by throwing them where they can’t be seen. You have to…
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DOUBLE ESPRESSO
Buddha walked slowly into the coffee house and ordered a large mochachino. He approached the sofa in the corner and folded himself neatly and precisely into and among its overstuffed cushions to the delight of a five year old pulling at his mother’s sweater as she struggles to finish her latte. “The body,” Buddha says…
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PIANO LESSONS
Mrs. Schwarting was my piano teacher. At 12, my parents gave me a choice of lessons: piano or dance. I had two left feet. I chose piano. It did not move. My mother smiled at my choice. She knew what my decision would be before she asked. My mother was like that. Mrs. Schwarting was…
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SENBAZURU
The crane stands placidly staring through the window as we earnestly attempt to imitate him, hoping he will honor the effort and not the result. The Master is graceful and we far less so, and out of the corner of my eye I see what could be smile, but could be derision as well, and…
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UNEQUINOX
A robin is slowly building her nest. She sits on one of the higher branches of our still winter-naked maple. She anxiously tucks small twigs, weaving the impenetrable. Each time I walk beneath she sits up and chides me. She is an expert in propriety. My lover and I walk down a rutted path, grasses…
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Taking
You can take my sight, but my mind will still see what it must, and my fingers will become eyes. You can take my hearing, I will imagine what I must, and my eyes will become ears. You can take my tongue, but my body will shout what I must, and my hands will speak…
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an old writer and his words 