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A SMALL WONDER
It always amazes me thateveryone around me seems to agewhile I know that I have notand that it is the mirror’s liesthat try and make me think I have.True, my body cannot do muchof what it once could but thatI know is less a factor of ageand more one of over use,for even the best…
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AT GRAVESIDE
It is odd that cemeteries arequite often the site of oration,soliloquies delivered with great emotion,be it love, regret or anger.Often they are paeans or jeremiadsmeant to be delivered in personbut held back until it is only the stonethat bears the brunt of the words.And yet a burden is liftedfrom the speakers for they assumethe dead…
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UPREACH
The reeds reach upwarddreaming they are green rice shootsslowly turning goldin the sight of the sun lit smilecast by old Fujiyama First published in 31 Gōrutendā, February 2024https://31gorutenda.blogspot.com/2024/02/upreach-louis-faber.html?m=1
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AMUSEMENT
Life, he said with his ever present smile,is very much like an amusement park.The preacher, priest, rabbi standsat the ticket booth, gladly taking your moneyand telling you to have a good time,but reminding you of the penaltyfor not following the rules he or shehands you, neatly bound and printedin longer or shorter versions dependingon who…
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HOGEN’S SUBSTANCE AND NAME
As you wander searchingfor that dharma you believeyou need to attain enlightenmentyou may ask many teachersto point you to the dharma.Some will point to the ground,others to the sky, butthe wise teacher willtell you there is no dharmayou can grasp so pleasestop looking for nothing,it has already found you. A reflection on Case 74 of…
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CH-CH-CH-CHANGES
Walking back through my lifeI can now begin to see when and wherethings changed, where I changed, wherethe place I thought of as my homebecame alien, altered, as thoughthe weathering of time wore awaywhat I now know were carefully appliedveneers, real enough seeming to meand to others who stopped to visit.And when the music changed…
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LINGER
Sitting in the mall strip plaza coffee shopworking my way slowly through a nonfat cortadoI stared at the everything bagel lyingforlornly on the saucer, its thin coatof peanut butter wishing, as I did, that itwas a spread of cream cheese, all of thisa portent of a difficult day to follow, as ifpunishment for a former…
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SLAINTE
Ireland should have felt alien,but it never did during our visit,nor had Scotland years earlier.And it wasn’t that I loved Scotchand Irish Whiskey and Guinnessalthough I did all of those, andtraditional Celtic music to boot.What I didn’t know then, whatI wouldn’t learn for a decadewas that my taste for thingsIrish and Scottish was woven,twisted into…