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PAUSE
This morning a lone snowy egretperched stoically atop the leafless treerising out of the small preserve.Of what was it a harbinger, whatmessage was I needing, failing to hear?Was it in search of a dove amid endlessnews of wars still raging on,or was it repeating the unheard warningof what we had wrought in its onceedenic world,…
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RAKUHO’S LAST MOMENTS
If you sit before the teacherand he asks you “how isyour practice, good or not”how do you answer?If you say your practiceis good, your teacherwill call you a liar.If you say your practiceis not good, your teacherwill tell you to practice. A reflection on Case 41 of the Book of Equanimity (従容錄, Shōyōroku)
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ON WRITING
Someone once advised methat I should always writewhat I know, for that givesthe work an honesty that isessential to its believability. I should add that he said itknowing I was a poet,and not to cause me to give upany dreams of fictionI might still have harbored. But as I age, I find thatI seem to…
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THEY SAID
She said, “If youhave something to sayjust say it.”He said, “I already did,I said it all.”She said, “Saysomething else, then.”He said, “I havenothing else to say,it has allbeen said already.”She said, “Thatis the problemwith you,you never wantto talk aboutthings I want.”He said, “I do haveone more thingI must say to you –Goodbye.”
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THAT SUMMER
That summer was onehe would always remember.She was special, she told him soand he had no reasonto doubt her. Thatand he was one to fallso easily into whathe thought was love.It lasted well into August,when she said it was over.He did not understand whybut he was not one to argueso he consigned herto a memory…
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BAMBOO
Walking through a small groveof bamboo, the breeze evokesa creaking until you need to lookto insure the tall spindlesare not about to collapse on you. A small child seeing you knowswhat you are thinking, smilesand says “they are just sayinghello, so you should say hello back.” Her parents appear flustered, whetherbecause she is talking to…
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MOTHER TONGUE
The English language is a joyif you have a truly twistedsense of normalcy, and the wordfashion can easily be its role model.As verb you fashion something,make, construct with an implicationof personal physical activity,an active verb after all.As a noun it is all a quitedifferent world, a world of clothing,of style and, properly, the prevailingstyle of…
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PAINFUL LEARNING
It was a lesson that took himfar too long to learn,was one he needed for years.He couldn’t remember all the timesthat he had set out to accomplish somethingyet that day was given over to Murphyor the corollary of his famous law,for he almost never accomplishedwhat he had set out to do.But the lesson was deeply…
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RAKUHO’S LAST MOMENTS
If I ask you “do youwish to find enlightenment,”how do you answer?If you say you doyou are yet another stepin the wrong direction.If you say you do notwish to find enlightenment,why are you practicing?If you sit on the cushionin total silence saying nothingyour answer willecho off the walls. A reflection on Case 41 of the…
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AND COUNTING
The dawn brokethe counting beganeach daya new dawna new count.The resultswere notedwrittenfor posterityout of habitfor no reasonfor no onecared any longer.No onecould remembera day whenthe countwas zerowhen the gunswere for oncetruly silent.
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an old writer and his words 