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A NIGHT AT THE ROSE
Three beers over two hours and, giddy, I want to sing along with the Irish house band in my horribly off-key voice, just two choruses of Irish Rover or Four Green Fields. It’s beginning to snow outside and it’s a four-block walk to the Government Center station. I suppose it would sober me up but…
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UNGAN’S SWEEPS THE GROUND
As you stoop to pick up fallen leaves are you cleaning spring, summer or autumn? What seasons are deep within the winter branch? How does your work and that of the tree truly differ, and what leaves do you shed? A reflection on Case 83 of the Shobogenzo (True Dharma Eye)
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RE-ENTRY ALLOWED
He sits on the cushion staring through hooded eyes at the wall in front of him. He expects exactly nothing to happen, expects there to be no sound within his mind, only what happens without, expects that time will cease for him, or will at least cease to matter. He is not disappointed. The bell…
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ALLEY
It was a dark alley with no apparent end and I wasn’t certain how I came to be here. Actually I was. I followed her into the alley, followed the promise of light she made. I do tend to follow her not for her beauty though she can show that when she chooses, but because…
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BOOKSHOP
Charing Cross Road booksellers woven amid theatres cramped sagging shelves an out of print Christine Evans, slim, collected works of those long forgotten never noticed a damp chill enfolds old leather as the door opens and shuts on a late February. Morning, my purchases sink in the plastic bag dancing as I walk to…
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GHOST SITTING
I sat with the ghost again this morning, the one who inhabits the body that was once my father. Ghosts find it difficult to speak from within living bodies, so mostly it squeezed my hand and offered an occasional weak smile or nod, said I looked good, but ghosts do have trouble seeing out of…
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SEOUL OF A NEW MACHINE
I Apartment buildings sprout, neat orderly, so many headstones in a cemetery marking the gravesite of ancient rural culture. II A slow morning in Itaewon, for you special deal finest leather, best quality gems, but I prefer precipitously plunging prices of Rollex’s last chance, $6. III Apartment building faces studded with small satellite dishes perched…
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MUSING (4 HAIKU)
Out the plane window a lake or a sea of clouds Why does it matter? during an eye blink the butterfly spreads its wings galaxies collapse Cats curl in furred sleep the moon crawls across the sky a monk awakens leaves cling to the trees the rivers flow more slowly the stone…
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BECAUSE
“Poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world.”-Shelley I write because words must be said words must be said …