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SAY CHEESE
The meeting drags on. Time is frozen. The space between a smile and a grimace is the edge of a fine blade and the width of a canyon. And you maintain the smile hoping it is not seen as the rictus you feel. Politeness requires a smile, your heart requires a fast escape. So you…
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PAPER CUTS
Paper is at once boththe cruelest invention a writermay have stumbled acrossand also her salvation. The blank page invites,often demands the penand is unjudging, yet the poetmay change or deletebut the paper retains the originaland throws it back in his face. The computer, many say,changed all of that, backspaceor highlight and delete andthat mistake, misuse,…
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CALLING
In the dark heart of nighttime is suddenly frozen,the clock’s hands stalactitesand stalagmites, unyieldingdenying the approach of morning,leaving the sun imprisonedunder the watchful gazeof its celestial wardens. It is then you appear,call out to me, beg mebe silent, not askingthe lifetime of questionsI have accreted, providingmy own hopes andimagination for answers,but you have faces, notthose…
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WANDERING NO MORE
In my dreams I wanderedthe alleys of Lisbon searchingfor a familiar face, and manycame close, but no man stopped meand asked if I was, by chancehis son, for he dreamed Iwas what a son of hiswould look like. Now I have no need to wanderfor I know he is ina military cemeteryin Burlington, New Jersey,and…
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STARING
She sits demurely on the stepstaring off at something.You want to know what buther face isn’t saying, her eyessoft, revealing nothing, her smileenticing, teasing, and out of grasp. You want to sit with her, seewhat she looks at, what has capturedher thoughts, and there is roomon the step for you to join her,but you have…
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NOT YET
The man walked into the old dinerlooking not at all happy,dressed in what looked likea white robe he found in some alley. He ordered coffee and glancedaround, as if seeking onefamiliar face, finding manythat looked like that of his father, like him,for that matter, and he knewfrom this quick glance thatthey were not yet ready,…
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FRUITED PLAINS
As I was cutting up our breakfastfruit this morning, the name Lynette“Squeaky” Fromme came to mind. I would have thought it would beCesar Chavez, given half the fruitwas from California, and I had no thoughtof Gerald Ford or any Republican President,never before at least one full cup of coffeeand generally not even then, but there…
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PERSPECTIVE
It will soon enough be time again,I am an old clockface on a towerat which no one but the truly boredbother to look, tucked in a cornerof a village half empty, its lifemoved away to places cooler,less stormy. So I sit and watchwhat life remains around me,the few children wishing theycould be elsewhere, some parentswishing…
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HELLO GOODBYE
When I saw you this morningI knew instantly that I hadn’t seen youin more than twenty years,although it is quite possible wehave never met and todaywas the first time my eyesever gazed at your face . I suppose it is lucky thatyou did not recognize mealthough I don’t think I’ve changedall that much in twenty…
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REISHO’S BRIGHT AND CLEAR
As you stareinto the mirrorit is your reflectionyou clearly see.As the facein the mirrorstares at youit is its faceit sees reflected.There is one faceand there area thousand faces. A reflection on Case 88 of Dogen’s Shobogenzo (True Dharma Eye) Koans
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an old writer and his words 