record objects

tak bon

w a t e r f a l l s

if persephone

could
she would dance under seas,
northerly,
with the dead in Doggerland or
with goddess speed
walk west to freshwater Great Lakes
visiting the shipwrecked.
In the north we stain our dead with iron and copper.
There are no pomengranates.
The waters like clouds float above the dark earth.
Oceans, seas, rivers, lakes, and dreams...
Come Persephone! They cry.
After all,
it's our winter too.

mahjong scorpion

Once
I lifted a white bucket
to my shoulder,
poured water.
As I put the bucket down,
I saw
a black scorpion on my shoulder.
I threw it far from me.
You killed it.

So here I am, you dead,
lost in 144 parts of another.
Foolishly stung.

you should leave this game without solution
it eats through versions of yourself

it's a sizeable hole

instead

using the lispish  inflection of

el corazón

advantage the generous seams
in this

and

unhemming  edges

end it

if you go
if you through this
then
one
or another
may
but
there is always
the
last
at
last

unless

mi  ruta norte

f r u i t e d n o r t h

The fool thinks it like honey so long as the bad deed does not bear fruit,
but when it does...experiences suffering.
5.69. Dhammapada


apples as compass and recollection
living in the desert I searched
found them dried
was comforted
a desiccate but definite north
I need north
reminds me of
people
things
places
loved
lost -



remains.

foot  p(r)(l)int(h)s

Shan shui 山水

triangular ascent

white stones
and cairns

force of

salt
and dried fishes
(circumnavigate the)

circumambulate the

sprinkle with

below lenticular

further on

"hard snow, high albedo" (Macfarlane)

two ravens
Huginn and Muninn

crossing with us a river of frozen edges and deepest green-black

white ice and black water
spume still and flow cavelike

Pyramids, he writes (mountains for him, but also monuments)
claim lives

as they rise  solar or
iceward and polar

the accessibility of the inaccessible

(dream-scoured nonsense)

frozen waterfall

deceptive
permeable pose
snakeskin sloughing still
for now
for the still

what is it at edge but inverse darkness
of river and shore?


Milarepa concentration of cold is frozen fall

is this an

ice body tumo
(water heart generation underneath winter)

breakthrough niches of rush and whirled ink

direction

La ruta nos aportó otra paso natural

the path provides the next step

even if to go forth
or back into
to again walk out of
or like the kora
circle in tail eating endlessness

this road
yet
unknown

is where the white flags begin

and

in all directions there will be met mountains, and rivers

going, as this road, on or in or around, with no other intention

Gunabhadra (394-468)
translator of Lankavatara Sutra
into Chinese
is recorded
asking

What  is  it?

In the same text, 1st Zen patriarch Bodhidharma is recorded asking

What is that?

fifth patriarch Hung Jen of sixth patriarch Hui Nang (638-713) asked

What is this thing and how did it get here?

Huai Jang  or Nangaku Ejo (677-744) replied

Although its cultivation and experiencing are not uncalled for, it cannot be tainted

Huai Jang asked

What is it?

Ma Tsu or Baso (709-788) replied

for the thirty years since my last shock, I have been short of neither salt nor sauce

taught

Those who seek the truth should realise there is nothing to seek. There is no Buddha but and; there is no mind but Buddha.
I want to stop crying like a baby.
When the crying has stopped,
not mind
not Buddha.

Ma Tsu to Pai Chang  or Hyakujo (720-814)
who called to a crowd after dharma talk

What is it?

Huang  Po or Obaku (d. 850)
seven feet tall with a pearl-like swelling in the middle of his forehead said

Your true nature is... never lost to you even in moments of delusion, nor...gained
at the moment of enlightenment

his disciples
fierce Lin Chi or Rinzai (d. 866)
stalking enlightenment like a panther

and the reclusive, sandal making  Mu Chou or Bokushu (780-877)
who, picking up a piece of cake asked

What is it?

and, as his first teacher, slammed the door on the leg of Yün Men or Ummon (d.949)

helping him to achieve enlightenment

encouraging him to also train under Hsüeh Feng or Seppo (822-980)

who

when approached, alone and fiery, could burn off your face

scolded Yün Men for

talking in his sleep

Yün Men's teaching survived for 3 hundred years after his death.


You tell me
what is it?

What else is it?


- The Faith To Doubt. Batchelor

h o u s e f l y

Musca domestica

Cenozoic

lasting 

65 million years

or

28 days

patience

waiting
without
anticipation

open

unexpectedly



more







waiting

ate two
anjou
(red)
so much sun
read
along Highland paths
into Illinois farm
and

lives of winter bees

silence

waxing crescent at ten degrees fahrenheit
sun

waning crescent
the pull
 of

sun
a Tuesday noon

two years to

Thursday
at ten in the morning

there are no children to take refuge in
Dhamma says no refuge in family

when death comes

Dhammapada 20.288

d o w s e r

a homeless man gave up his seat for an old woman
he stood by his immense bag of cans
in his gloved hands
a forked stick
dips downward

this river

your death date nears
i fold translucent paper boats
(imperfectly constructed)

what archive a memory
a trace
our small fossil lives as
solidly destructible as stone

More fossils found among the stone moats surrounding river condominiums.

Crinoid Silurian or Cretaceous sea floor? Where from, these small deaths?