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WHAT’S IN A NAME?
He is four, he announces to all gathered at the extended family table that he will be five soon, in January. It is important that we know this just as it is important that he sit next to his cousin, for boys like he should always sit next to cute girls and sisters don’t count,…
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MEMORY OF THE VINE
The conversation flows freely, piles up on the table, amid dishes from a meal now fully consumed, as the last of the wine reluctantly cedes its grip on the bottle and settles into the glasses. In Abruzzi, the vintner imagined this, staring at the grapes pulled lovingly from the now ancient vines. As night draws…
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SEASCAPE
The shadow of the balloon passes slowly along the water’s edge and onto the beach, its gondola touches the dune as the disk of the sun drowns in the sea. First appeared in Beachfire Gathering, 1999
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ON THE BANKS
The river ignores us for yet another day, flowing despite our presence, knowing the lake awaits. As the rain lets up, the sun appears and sets the water ablaze demanding our attention and we gladly give it. As our jacket shed the last of the cloudy gifts, the wind reminds us that this moment is…
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CHANGE
They lie in the field uprooted slowly desicating in the harsh sun, the fruit they might have borne trapped in the dying flower, the seed of another generation denied. It was not supposed to be like this, the sun should have fed them, the soil nourished their souls, their stalks growing thicker, drawing ever more…
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NANSEN’S REJECTIONS 鐵笛倒吹 四十四
If you come before Master Nansen will you come holding the posture of a monk or a lay person and when Nansen turns you away how will you exit the room? Nested hands and gassho hands both are so easily manacled, why leave the room at all? A Reflection on case 44 of the Iron…
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FIRST PERIOD
They stand impatiently in line chattering, giggling, tittering like so many schoolgirls with secrets they promised to keep to their deaths and have to immediately tell a friend. “Did you hear about Letitia?” one says, and goes on to say she shared her journal with several other girls in the eighth grade. It goes on…
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IN THE BEGINNING
You so very want there to be no ending but there must be, just as there had to be a beginning and you had no say about that. Endings are hard, they remind you of small deaths, all but one, but each is also a birth of sorts, and like you know, they arise and…
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A LEG UP
We agree we must learn the rules, to master the game, practice until the moves are second nature. We have three weeks to do all of this, then Place the game box back on the shelf to be discovered and taken down, opened spread out on the table, impatience controlling. Want to ensure that one…
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SUSIE
What do you say on the loss of a child? We sat in the lounge drinking a vile potion from a hollowed pineapple giggling insanely for no reason. We wandered the tunnels faces painted, clowns in bedlam. We lay together on a mattress on the floor and listened to Aqualung my arms around you both,…
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an old writer and his words 