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HYAKUJO’S FOX 無門關 二
The old, crippled foxcrawled slowly from the mouthof the dark cave. Sidling up to Hayakujothe old monk said to fox,“think fox, useno mind to thinkno thing. Fox paused in reflection.Cremated bones, fleshand fur were lovingly buriedin a monk’s funeral. A reflection on Case 2 of the Mumonkan 無門関 (The Gateless Gate Koans)
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FOR RENE
“The eternal mystery of the world is its comprehensibility… The fact that it is comprehensible is a miracle.” – Albert Einstein (1936) Cogitodice clatteragainsta cornerof the universe,rolling the bonesof a thousandgenerationsone slidesinto the black holevoida losernextplayerto the lineboxcarsstacked as cordwoodinto the pitrottingthe snakestaresat a halfeaten applehooded eyescloseHawkingpresses keysindicatingchuckling First Published in Ionosphere, Vol. 1, Issue…
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THINGS I SHOULD HAVE TOLD MY SONS
1.You can lead a horse to waterbut if he is agoraphobicyou will be walking home 2.You can runbut doing so on icewill lead to useless bruisingand broken bones 3.a bird in the handwill not be terribly happyand could shitall over your new shoes 4.All good things comeand most go,but bad things lingerif you allow it…
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PAUSING
As the rivers dry upand lakes become pondswe are finding things wenever thought we would see.An old warship in Europe,dinosaur footprints, carsand, sadly, the bones of some.We stop momentarily to marvelat these discoveries, thenwithdraw to our homes where wehope we can escape the heat,our air conditioners working overtime,the power plants strained.Yet we never stop to…
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LIGHTS
For eight days each Decemberthey call out to me as the flameof the candles flickers out,“Remember me” they say in unison,“remember me”, in the voice of the child,an old woman, in Yiddish,in Polish, German, Czech, Latt.I want to remember but I cannot seea face reduced to ash, blendedinto the earth of a farm field outside…
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FINITE LOOP
As it turns out, lifeis an ongoing process of accretionand deconstruction, of growthand eventual shrinkage. I started with 20 teethI am told, and got to 32,only to fall back to 23thanks to orthodontia and wear. We start with 270 or morebones, but we knit that numberdown to 206, or in my case under200, the orthopaedist’s…
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DAIZUI SEES A TURTLE 鐵笛倒吹 十七
If you see a turtle does it seem odd it wears bones outside? Does the turtle live within these bones and where do you go to hide from bright light.. If you place a sandal on your head which end will be walking? A reflection on Case 17 of the Iron Flute Koans
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OF THEE I SING
My ancestors stole your tongue and left you mute in a world you could not grasp. Now as I search for words of forgiveness I can find none, for my voice is clogged with…
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FEATHERS
He crouched in the hollow in the ancient cliff careful not to disturb the bones scattered just in the shadows behind. He waited patiently until he heard the sweep of the great wings and the mighty bird alighted on its nest. He reached out quickly and plucked two feathers never more, and pulled back into…
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an old writer and his words 