253–Knew

the mid drift swells with age

and misuse each morsel i put

on my tongue requires muscle

testing the back aches in the

morning and sometimes i feel

so tired so what’s really new

is getting old i somehow knew

it would be tough but i also knew

i’d be fine thinking i was tougher

than most this lesserness is new!

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And

That’s what they say about relationships,
said my friend. They are like sandpaper,

wearing us down to expose the core.
There have been other times when I would

have argued with her, referring to the velvet
of communion, the thin silks of unfolding,

the limbs melting, self melting, fear melting,
the layered weaving of breath and breath,

and feeling the rub, all I could say was yes.

Sometimes the Thinnest Places

The Celts spoke of “thin places,” places like caves or wells or other special sites where the boundary between the mundane and magical was permeable. … a “place” where we can discover that there is fundamentally no separation between ourselves and others, that what we seek is always so close, always right here.

Roshi Pat Enkyo O’Hara, An Introduction to Zen (Tricycle, Spring 2009)

are where we least expect, perhaps
next to the meat counter

when your daughter is shrieking
because your son leans too close to her in the cart

and the woman in the blood-stained apron
leans across the glass, smiles, hands you

a hunk of roasted turkey breast
and says, “Here, honey, I think it will help.”

252–Of Money and Work

i was waiting for answers again

until i read my conversations with

grandmother moon in 2006, 2007

etc. where i was asking the same

questions and getting the same

gorgeous answers she said, “MONEY

is just a small manifestation that

took on the importance of god

in a lie that’s believed all over

the world!”she continued

“you’re not meant to be a great

thinker, you’re a great lover.”

imagine that and she did tell

me to forget about this job

stuff and just do my work

so here i am writing poem

252

251–Everywhere

did you feel me in the wind?

i was there as i am here in you

this bee survives while his tribe

is dying and i am in him

this small boy is so beautiful

he opens hard hearts making

flowers bloom in the dessert

i am in him everywhere

always everywhere so i

cannot speak evil of myself

for i would curse your beautiful

creation everywhere we

do not need to hold hands

our atoms already dance together

The Apricots Are Gone, Are Gone

And the summer carries on.
In other rows, peaches grow red-cheeked
and sweetness gathers in the pears.

Surrounded by pleasure, still
we choose to mourn what isn’t there.