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THE ANCIENTS
Night and the ancients retreatto a dark corner of their celestial prisonfrom the promised arrivalof the yellow dwarf from whichthey know we demand a presence. We ignore the ancients now,ignore those who cast theminto their prison, ignorethe acts for which they werebanished, care only to name them,and they know that our recognitionis their only grasp…
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CELESTIAL RHYTHM
It was a certain rhythm that he loved,one he felt it in total silence, yet it fadedin the presence of sound, a doumbekof the soul he would describe it. He remembered how it was beforetheir one god rendered him and his kindmere mythological creatures fit onlyfor poetry and dusty library shelves. He would have his…
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DEEP
Deep beneath the Arctic icethe whale songs shimmerin the harsh lightof a frozen sun.We strive to hear them,hear nothing, hear onlyour thoughts echoingthrough cavernous memories.With thoughts of what was,what we wish had been,we are ambient noisein a universe whichcradles hope, craves silence.Dolphins dream of dayswhen the sea was theirs,lives lived in a slow paradisea world…
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UNGAN’s NOT ANY SINGLE WORD
The youngest child,her mind uncluttered,can answer any questionunburdened by words,her answers reboundacross the universe.If you stop strugglingto hear her, letthe silence surroundyou both, you cannotescape the answers A reflection on case 84 of Dogen’s Shobogenzo Koans (True Dharma Eye)
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COSMOS
As a child he decided,after watching Cosmos,that he wanted to be an astronomer. He was six, we boughta large telescope and I was assignedthe job of aiming itaccording to his directions. After a while he didhave a mment of panic, wonderingwhat he would doduring the day. That soon passedwhen he discovered the radio telescopeand time…
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BLACK HOLE
The universe is populatedby an as yet unknownnumber of black holes,points of hyper-density whose gravityis so great thatanything gettingtoo close cannever escape,or so we wereoriginally told. Hawking suggestedthere is hopefor escape, someenergy closeto the eventhorizon mayradiate backinto the universe. In the blackhole that wasmy family,I, luckily, provedto be thatescaping energy.
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BACK LOOKING
On the worst day, of the worstweek, or even just a day, like mostthat did not go the way you want,step outside at night if the sky is clearand stare upwards at the universe. Realize that you are seeingmore than a monumental collectionof celestial bodies, that you areexperiencing so much history,and moments older thanmankind itself,…
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DRINKING TEA IN KABUL*
Rockets flash brieflyacross the chilled sky,plumes of smoke, ashcarried offby impending winter. Over the lintel of the entryto the Inter-Continental Hotel Chicago,carved deeply into the marbleEs Salamu Aleikumstaring implacablythrough ponderousbrass framed doorsonto the Miracle Mile.Countless guestspass below itunseeing. My son and Isit across a small tablespilling bits of tapasonto the cloth,laughing lightlyat the young boybathed…
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POSTDICTIONS
In the beginning there wasa void, stasis, dimensionless.I am a point, without sizetaking form only in motion,so too the seat on whichI sit on United flight 951not going from point Ato point B for neithercan exist in motiontranscending time. Each decision setsone me on a path, intoa dimension, dimensionswhile I tread a different pathand I…
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MEMORY
We were told the average background color of the universe was turquoise. She said “that’s because a coyote ripped it from the mountains outside Cerrillos. But now they say it’s actually a shade of dark beige, drying mud colored.” It was a glitch in the software, the astronomers said. The coyote was unmoved. She sits…
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an old writer and his words 