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SOPHIE
She maintained an aura of what sheimagined was elegance, a carefullyconstructed persona carried outin the most careful details. Her furniture had slipcovers, lestsomeone spill and mar the fabric,a tea cart always at the readyalthough I never saw her serve tea. She spoke with carefully chosenwords, certainly not the vernacularof the city, perhaps of Londonwhere she…
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LEILA
At the left click of the mousemy granddaughter appearsbarely a week oldand with a right-clickshe is frozen into the hard drive.I remember sitting outsidethe Buddha Hall of Todai-Ji Templein the mid-morning August sun thesmiling at a baby waiting in her strollerfor her mother to bowto the giant golden Buddha.I recall the soft touchof the young…
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YOU’RE OUT OF HERE
The gods have ceasedto care about us, toobusy with other more importanttasks like fighting theirpending evictions fromOlympus and Asgard. And the demigods havenever given a damnabout us, always preeningand imagining theirelevation, so we are leftto muddle along and weknow how that has workedthrough history, so wehave turned away, anointedourselves, declared weare holy and built a…
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MIRROR MIRROR
The person I see each morninglooks vaguely familiar, perhapssomeone I once met in passing,or maybe a distant relative.But he was so much olderso he was difficult to place. I do say hello each morningbut get only a nod, a gesturein response, as if the personis mute, for he smiles backso it is not a silence…
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ABSURD, FL
The utter and complete absurdityof living in Florida canbe ever so easily illustrated. Last evening the neighbor’sdog decided it neededto express itself and did soin clear and loud terms. The limpkins and gallinulesin the wetland behindboth our homes shouted backand based on my admittedlylimited vocabulary of birdthere were several fourletter words and at least oneupraised…
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UNTIL
I was the adoptee,was the whole for years, until. It is always the untilthat is your undoing, wasmine when sheremarried, then two births. I was one third then, neveragain truly whole and whenshe died I discoveredin her will I was onlyone twentieth, andthen never even that. I want to forget her,forget them, denythem, but all…
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IDENTIFYING WITH CAUSE AND EFFECT
You offer to methat which I cannot take,I refuse to give youthe one thing you can accept.We each have nothingand give nothingand are happyfor the perfect gift. A reflection on Case 90 of Dogen’s Shobogenzo Koans (True Dharma Eye)
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DESIGN?
I still have grave doubtsabout designers in general, clothinghouses in more particular, and above all furniture. You have to ask if the personwho designed this chairwas somehow incapable of sitting,or simply wanted somethingthat looked artistic, to hellwith the comfort of its occupant. And some designers take thisto extremes, hoping perhapsfor some measure of eternal recognition.Take…
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UNKNOWING
Twenty years ago todayand there was no band playing,at least not for me, for I knewnothing of you yet, and youknew nothing of me either. I have met you sincein a moment of silence,looking at a yearbook pictureknowing what was not, whatnever was or could be. I recite the Kaddisheven though my Judaismhas been laid…
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ONE MORE
How many nails doesa simple coffin need? They hammered another onetoday, the largest yet. We had invited themto do so it seems. We were upset by thisbut there was nothing wecould really do exceptcall them out and threatento do what exactlyhas never been clear. So we are left to mournagain the death, knowingthat there can…
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an old writer and his words 