moon gibbous  -  "inflowing thoughts come to an end"


appears in dreams
an animal grave

they've thrown
these dead bones
for centuries

as the oracle

advises

children find them
after
pretend to read them

is it really any worse a prophecy ?

full
moon
soon

..When one meditates on the constituent elements of existence, One experiences joy and rapture. It is immortality for those of
discrimination.
- 25.374 Dhammapada



(waxing gibbous)

At two
in the morning
she
staggers
down
the street
hesitates
a moment
continues
weeping
until
barely
audible
her
cries
are
overlain
by
a dog's sharp
yipe
of pain.

how
what's
steeped in
strains out

see
with a
green tea
mind

day's dark done

Walked
saw
children

found
saints
(latter day)
have a place here
a street address

Do
children and saints
learn
Japanese
quickly

count
kanji
one two three
thousand?

I make bowled boats
coracles
from wood pulp clay
they
may not float
these boats
for children
and saints.

Saints
say
we can change into them after death
after our day's
dark, is
done

but
winning
over
sinning
doesn't matter

here

where
we're moored
and tired

even for saints
it's
time for bed.

postscript (painting)

as 
of 
af Klimt
a
spiritual
mediation -

to the
American
critic
who said she 
wasn't

 "...any more interested in the particulars of "
her  "belief systems than 
the mysticism" 

of 
Agnes Martin 
or

" the numerical systems and Mayan hieroglyphs" 

of
 Alfred Jensen
so

ignoring
charged space
right there
in the eye.

An end result

could be
she sees

american pragmatism w/o James

a Shaker table
without the
rattled soul.

Free to do so.

Go ahead and look. 

I can't go there 
where 
empty's
omitted.

falling down

Old houses disappear
under green
and gross neglect.
Note
here
homes
die from rot
insects
earth tremors
the sea.
To tear down
makes ground
more valuable
so they stay
shuttered,
standing,
aslant.

Kuras,
that is
the storehouses
of grain and goods
not wood,
stone sturdy and rarer,
remain longer,
repurposed.

Farmers
keep
plastic,
metal
until
they brittle, rust
beyond roping
and riveted repair.
Their field economy
extends to
buildings
which are
bundled,
broken debris
seeking
employment.

What can be saved?
Houses and storerooms,
farms and fields
will once again flood,
decay
rivaling
city
ruin,
woodland
loss.

Under
slowly rising seas
we remember things
always fall down
around us -
never
long
before
that fact
reasserts itself.

s e v e n h o l y f e a r s

1
the jewel -
small fears
that necklace,
brooch-fastened,
or pierced ear
ordinary,
reliably
present


2

the flush -
you just enough
axially off,
wobbling
indeterminately


3

the flange -
terminal
rib, collar or rim,
smells of hypocrisy
held in


4
the drum -
vigilant,
animal longing,
an incessantly
hungry hole



5
the veil -
through which all women
sense all things
that
define
surround


6
the candle -
that illuminates
but never warns,
the cave companion
enticement


7
the word -
abused
relocks
the box
fled from,
too late

"Let go of the past, let go of the future, and let go of what is in between, transcending the things of time. With your mind free in every direction, you will not return to birth and aging."
- 24.348 Dhammapada

Awakening
is this -
heaving up
just enough
through
confusion
to fall with
a thud
into
time.


.

もくぎょ

An aging Cezanne saw clearly that the space between thought and thing, for him between himself and a mountain, was spiritually charged.

I respect anyone who wanders such spaces with intention and intensity. The surface ripples such connections cause!

last
first
still

Can a truth be filled with soft bone pulp, regenerate?
Her mouth lost secrets
an  abscess
an absence

...enduring undisturbed criticism, ill-treatment and bonds, strong in patience, that patience her power.
- 26.399 Dhammapada

night poem

big green noon
in room
overhead
overheard
this word

soon.

jewelry covered stupa
string of pearls
circular mantras of gold and diamond
a sapphire
ruby
opal echoing moon
soon this stupa
imbedded
takes wing
it's a thing that
ascends
as high as
as high as

When  bad deeds are covered over by good ones,  that person illuminates the world, like a moon breaking away from a cloud.
- 13.173 Dhammapada

the persistence of small
the let loose
the left out
remain

s t o r m

split
oak
sound

pine
branch
ground

bamboo
you
bent