-

TAILORING
My adoptivegrandfather could take bitsof cloth, a needle, threadand with magiclygnarled fingerscreate a garmentfit for royalty, to be wornby the old womanliving in the walkup down the street. I take wordsbits of ideasand hope,and with manicured fingerscreate whatI can only hopepasses for poetryto be ignoredby thoseliving nearbyin my suburb.
-

SUIBI’S MEANING
If you ask how can one find the wayI will take youinto the gardento look at the roses.Each rose isof a different sizeand color, but whichis of the right sizeand which the right shade? A reflection on Case 71 of the Shobogenzo (Dogen’s True Dharma Eye)
-

WALLS
Someoneonce suggestedthat if you builda ten foot wallsomeone will bringan eleven foot ladder. I have alwayswanted to taketo the sky freelyand not in somemetal sarcophagus,to be a birdwithout limitationsbut all I have is an eightfoot ladderand I amstill afraidof heights.
-

DIALOGUE
S: What are you doing, for heaven sake?H: Isn’t it obvious, I’m searchingfor Nirvana, for enlightenment.S: You silly fool, it’s right behind you!H: (turning suddenly) It is not,I would certainly see it.S: You might think so, butit…
-

IBIS SEEING YOU
They pausein their foraging in the lawnto peer up at us,strange looking interlopers,but they are used to us by nowand return to the task at hand. We no longer find them strangethough we never quiteget used to the curvedsalmon colored beaks,and we do wonderwhy the ancient Egyptians held them sacred. It seems that theyhave never forgiventheir Egyptian ancestorsfrom affixingtheir head to…
-
A HASTY BURIAL
They should have hadan altar, even Abrahamhad one when he was readyto execute Isaac, and the raminterceded, to his ultimate peril. They should have hada funeral, that is just commonsense and decency, but theywanted no such thing, justbe done with it, bury it away. I still mourn the deathof science for I know that itoperates…
-

HISTORY
It was easierhaving no historyof my own, borrowedhistories are easily discarded. After a while, youbegin to think of the adoptedhistory as your own,and no one doubts you. I have a history nowcountries woven into my DNA, always presentbut never before seen. It is mine, I passed italong to my sons, andalthough it grows weakerit is a…
-

EXISTENCE
I imagine I am the creatorI imagine I am the createdand I am the creatorand I am the createdI am both, I am neither. I exist because I think I existso I have created myself,just as you exist to me becauseI think you exist, I am creator. I say I can touch you so youmust…
-

SEKISO’S SINGLE HAIR
A thousand steps,one hundred thousand morealong the pathand the goalseems ever farther away. Stopand restin perfect stillness.You are there, it has walked with you. A reflection on Case 86 of the Shobogenzo (Dogen’s True Dharma Eye)
-

INVASION
The light has fadedand the wetland lies underits mantle of faint starlight. The birds are there, wecan hear them, but our eyesdo not allow us to see them,despite our desire to havemore time with them. They can see us, in our well lit homes, staring out,but they do not want particularly to see us. To us they…