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CHŌSHA’S RETURNING TO MOUNTAINS
When you see a mountainwhy must you climb itwith your eyes.When you heara mighty river whymust you ford itwith your ears,when you feel the earthwhy must you touchit with your feet?Are younot the mountaindoes the river runthrough you, as yourun through it, areyou not the earth? A reflection on Case 16 of the Shobogenzo (Dogen’s…
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OF DREAMS
Last night in my sleepI though I heard an angelalthougn I could not, for trying,understand what it was saying,and it is odd since Ido not believe in angels. Perhaps it was the cat,but if so she has come upwith a new voice, using wordsnot formerly in her vocabulary,but you put nothingpast a cat, ever. I…
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FOR ETERNITY
Mother goneresting perhaps next toher daughter who lingereduntil even she grew tiredof battling the cells thatwere slowly consuming her,now with someone to continuetheir argument for the restof eternity.
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MISSING SONGS
The problem, or one of them, isthe lack of music today. We haveall manner of what people call music,but not the music of the sortwe need, needed once and found,as we stormed the bastionsand bastards who mired us in war,who shunned darker brothersand sisters, who made alienablebasic rights to half of us withoutrhyme or reason,…
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CANINE
The dog refuses to walkaround the house and checkthe driveway, and sothe shells will rain on the villageas they do each time she senses fear. She has a sight beyond thatI can fathom, curled underthe heat vent, as thoughthe cries of children carryin her dreams, her taildances against the grate. On most nights when she…
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THEM, AGAIN
They say that you shouldnever approach or toucha small bird, lest it he shunned,perhaps to death, by your scent. I’ve never been one to listento any “them” with whom Icannot argue face to face,and so seeing the small bird on the ground curledin its nest, staring upat the branch from whichshe parachuted groundward I scoop…
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AVERAGE
I am indistinct, maleof reasonable heightand weight, a bit muchmore than I care,but hardly distinct. I have not sufferedmysogeny, beenoverlooked forbeing the wronggender, as ifthere is rightand wrong. I have not feltthe stingof racism, I ammerely oneof the lemmingsmarching alongto the abysscertain of myprivilege, ableto cede myhumanity.
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TŌSU’S MOON
If you havea full half knowledgewill you be contentor strive for full knowledgeand how will you knowwhen you have it.Remember thatyou measure knowledgeonly as it departsand he who knowswhat he knowsis the greatest fool. A reflection on Case 13 of the Shobogenzo (Dogen’s True Dharma Eye) Koans
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IF ONLY
As I have aged, I hopeI have gotten smarteror at least more ableto adapt to life’s issues. But there are still areaswhere knowledge fails,where you cannot hopeto attain what you want. World peace is one such,honest politicians another,and the list could go onbut you get the picture. The ultimate failure howeveris imagining that you can…
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WALLS
It is one thingto build a wallthat othersstop and admire,yet make ithigh enoughthey don’lt thinkof climbing over it. Walls are meantto keep, inor out is neverclear, and actuallyit is always both,for a walltakes no sides,a silent sentinel. And no wallis impenetrableand unscalablesave that surroundingthe heartless oneswho are destinedto die alonein anger.
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