You offer to me
that which I cannot take,
I refuse to give you
the one thing you can accept.
We each have nothing
and give nothing
and are happy
for the perfect gift.
A reflection on Case 90 of Dogen’s Shobogenzo Koans (True Dharma Eye)
Phtography
MAP STORE
The bride walks down the aisle
trailing a veil of tears
rolling in the dust
of too many centuries,
encrusting the virgin.
Albert Einstein
purchases a map of Taos.
Bookkeeper hunches
over ledger sheets
tallying night winds across
the frozen pond, log
wedged in the ice.
Douglas Macarthur
purchases a map of Hue.
Monitors blare news
from other worlds, flickering
across cups of half empty
coffee and cigarette butts
and muscatel dreams.
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern
purchase a map of Sarajevo.
First published in Legal Studies Forum, Vol. XXX, No. 1 & 2, 2006
LUNAR LUNCH
Even as a child I was
reasonably certain that
the moon wasn’t made
of green cheese as some
of my friends said, because
even if it was cheese, I
was sure it would be either
Roquefort or Gorgonzola.
No one had been
to the moon back then,
nothing had marred its surface,
so we took the scientists
on faith that it was
something other than cheese.
Now looking back we
must consider our naivete,
for it was scientists
in the employ of companies
who assured us that
tobacco might actually be
good for us, although we
never saw them smoking
come to think of it now.
ISAN’S DO NOT BETRAY OTHERS 正法眼蔵 四十七
If you fall, 20,000 arms
will lift you up,
when you sit
10,000 join the Sangha.
If you walk barefoot
in the snow
I will put socks
on my feet for you.
If you hunger, I
will give you an empty bowl
and this will be
our shared dharma.
A reflection on Case 47 of the Shobogenzo (Dogen’s True Dharma Eye)
an old writer and his words 