ashes to atoms
neutron to quark
karma’s the spark
Category: life
1131
our war dead–
surfing and barbecuing
forgetting us
1099
leaves on wind
our lives– no need
for self negations
967 rw
new calendar
blank as snow
cloaking treasure
653
That which does
not kill you
will turn around
and try again.
511
in your next lifetime
choose to be a cat of mine
you could do much worse
六十六
(rewrite)
457
it’s only thunder…
or a resentful gesture
meant to kill us all
六十六
408
for one afternoon
the small meadow of flowers
surrounds a new grave
371
birthday coming up
I’m older than some redwoods
younger than some hills
368
discarding old dolls
pains my daughters– memories
with eyes wide open
358
a breeze shakes the leaves
and wings away into night
another friend passed
336
aeons ticking by
on tiny jewels and springs
my life rewinding
Image by Meredith Stanyan
157
there is no email
from one’s grave– the great missing
of a friend begins
(for Susan Walker of Reigate, England)
(“An odd thought strikes me:– we shall receive no letters in the grave”
quoted of Samuel Johnson, in Boswell’s Life of Johnson)
5/21/15 grace
unveiled legs and arms
flow smooth with arcing grace
waves before the storm
LITURGY
Life makes Life a simple gift,
wraps in parable and myth
a thing not so large it
cannot fit into a single lotus seed
not so small it couldn’t bulge
and expand the cosmos
not so near it does not shine
on numberless galaxies beyond sight
not so far its breath doesn’t
touch your ear in the quiet of night
and whisper that it’s name is “Life”
all around and flowing within us
the heart’s blood of waking buddhas
who open their eyes laughing
having dreamt we are glasses of water
deep in wondrous, rhythmic seas
(Lines 3-6 paraphrased from Nichiren Daishonin’s Sanze Shobutsu Sokammon Sho, Gosho Zenshu 563)
