-

SHADOW
I want to be your shadow,and not in your shadow,but the shadow itself,so that I might be with you,often unnoticed, forgottenbut present in the lightof day and night. It is a closenessI deeply want, withoutintruding, a presenceyou have with you always,for that is what loverscrave in silence, something morefor which they dare not ask.
-

AFGHAN, ANYONE
Symbols have deep meaningeven to those so blind theycannot see them, and our politicshave become wholly retail. Any good retailer will tell youthat $19.95 is significantlyless than $20.00, a nickelthat swallows the dollars. So we got out, and nineteenyears and 354 daysis considerably shorterthan twenty years we are told, but everything blew up around us,but…
-

NOT EVEN CLOSE
It was Salvador Dali who once said:“Have no fear of perfection,you’ll never reach it.”It might have easily have beenmy creative writing professorin College, although he wouldhave added, “and in your caseI doubt you’ll ever get close.” Well over time I havecertainly proved Dali right,although I’d like to thinkthe esteemed professormissed the mark, butas Cage said,…
-

SEARCHING
I never imagined thatthe search would take so longor be so difficult. I never imaginedI had set off seekingthe Holy Grail. It once was easyI recalled, little searchingand plentiful enough. Now, hours spentactually wasted, I concededthat it was futile and went back deepinto time to bring forthwhat I never imagined would be so hardto find,…
-

EASY, I SAID
I had great plansfor the day, a simple project,easy install said the instructionsand an hour in, nothing working. Of course it was a weekendso I called for help andthe professional workedanother two hours beforeannouncing nothing doing. We concluded the productwas dead on arrival, as werethe plans I had madefor the bulk of thd day, but…
-

JUSTICE
The Rabbi always said thatthe highest form of justicewould be to teach a man to fish,rather than to donate fish to him. The Rabbi in question is nowlong dead, and in so many placesteaching a man to fish will onlyenable him to poison his family. We have laid waste to ouir worldassuming someone will clean…
-

THE BARD OF BROOKLYN?
If he were to appear here suddenlyI suspect Shakespeare wouldbe running a small theater groupin Brooklyn catering to an audiencedrawn mostly from the LGBTQcommunity, alternating productionsof gays and lesbians with Transand gender fluid having free choiceto reflect their true selves and notin the roles genetics cast them. If you asked him why, he’d saythat it…
-

THE LADDER
We have anointed ourselvesthe highest of species, ableto assert our dominion over allwhich might be fortunate enoughto fall within our protection. Some say we have eliminatedspecies, but they fail to recognizethat it was simply survivalof the fittest, that Darwinianrules must govern nature’s game. We mourn those gone, but neverpause to consider that basedon the game’s…
-

A QUESTION OF TIMING
Umberto Eco, I believe,intending to or not,has found the perfect wayto bring classic playsback to life, to enable usto reinterpret theseold works, to hold theirreincarnated selves dear. All you need do is decidewhether you are onewho prefers beginningsor finds ends more satisfying. Go see Hamlet, but missthe first act or so, and museon why he…
-

JOSHU’S CYPRUS TREE
A young childdoes not ask for meaning,all things areas they areuntil they are not.The foolishness of agecauses men to starein search of meaningthey will never find.It is the blind manwho will find the diamond. A reflection on case 119 of Dogen’s Shobogenzo (True Dharma Eye) Koans