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CANYON
He stands on the edge of the canyon and peers into the river etched below. At first you think he is considering jumping, but his gaze is too studious, as if he is waiting for some particular moment. You are correct, he is waiting for a particular moment and when it arrives he shouts at…
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DRAGON HOWLING IN A WITHERED TREE 正法眼蔵 二十八
Cut the hook off the line and throw it into the lake, dump the bait container onto the damp soil along the shore. Now sit silently in the oarless boat in the middle of the lake and drop your line and wait for the dragon to bite. And when it does, yell at it, hear…
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HISTORY AS IT WAS?
The reason the Jews spent forty years wandering in the desert had nothing to do with bad directions, or generational turnover, according to Larry’s father who worked in advertising. It was quite simply because God got really pissed off at Aaron’s marketing plan, “A Golden Calf, my ass!” is what he probably said. “I had better…
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THROUGH GAIJIN EYES
1. From the window of the hotel bus the small, squared fields are a green that only painters achieve, deep, intense, unreal. As the bus inches forward along the Narita–Tokyo expressway the green forms neat rows set off by a shimmer of the gray sky mirror that bathes the young plants. 2. Tokyo is a…
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THEN AGAIN
1970. The evening news is a procession of body bags, the halls of the VA Hospital are a storehouse of shattered bodies. He sits with a surreal placidity cross-legged on the small cushion, the corners of his eyes pulling up as if lost in thoughts of Kyoto. I sit, knees creaking even then, across the…
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UNTIL DEATH
They sit placidly on two small chairs placed by the steps of the Great Shrine each in the wedding clothes their families have worn for generations too many to count. I stand, out of the picture, leaning on the gate, telephoto lens extended and gently push down until I hear the click. They smile as their fingers…
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TWO THOUGHTS
Stare at a still pond, hear the birds “Beedu, Beedu,” now truly listen. . . Tomorrow is gone, yesterday has disappeared. What moment is this?
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WHAT, SHE ASKS, DOES A FEATHER SOUND LIKE?
echo of Galileo’s ball in speeding flight once cast off the tower, the cascade of butterfly wings in mid migration, and universes collapsing, and the sound of everything the moment before there was time.
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MUGO’S FANCIES 鐵笛倒吹 語十九
If you stand on the shore of a still pond and toss a stone into its middle the ripples will spread slowly until the water laps your toes. If you stand on the shore of a still pond and toss a ring of the finest gold into the middle, the ripples will spread slowly until…
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RIDE
There is a man standing at a bus stop. He waits at this bus stop each day, regardless of the weather. He is waiting patiently for a bus that will not come, the bus line was discontinued many months ago. He has a cast on his leg, but it doesn’t seem to bother him. It…
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an old writer and his words 