Snapshot #2

I loved watching him walk up the steep street

dressed in black, silhouetted against the grey

evening sky...drunk...like an aged elephant

or a dinosaur forgotten in time. It reminded

me of all my previous lives.

"Say Goodbye to Metaphor"

Say goodbye to metaphor

no analogies anymore

all is as it seems.

There's no where else 

to look for the truth.

Words are not to be trusted,

(except from a licensed poet).

The Word has become

The Enemy, in common parlance.

Just a tool to enslave you....

WAKE UP NOW!!!

.that's the difference...

It feels so fun 

from my bawdy pulpit

to speak freely like a bird...OH!! OZ!!

come join me!

There's almost nothing

left to loose. 

Cyprus Avenue

How many times have I been there

howling outside your window like

the wind on a turbulent night?

I don't even know who you are

anymore...your name has changed 

so many times over the years.

But I would like a fresh start, to see

you brilliant in a new form, my 

eternal love and consort.

All those other women I loved for years

were part of you...were you, no doubt.

But now you could play another trick

on me and show up at the last moment....

just when I've given up hope.

Damn you.

Lotus Garden 2008

The weather was exceptionally kind.

The students were exceptionally diligent.

The Loppons were exceptionally astute.

The kleshas were exceptionally lacking.

The food was exceptionally ordinary.

Talk was exceptionally cheap.

Smiles were exceptionally genuine.

Ethics were exceptionally evident.

The Guru,  as always,

was exceptionally awesome.

(www.lotusgardens.org)

Same Horse, Different Saddle

When I ride my mind,

which is all the time,

sometimes I wear a 

different saddle...

It all depends on whom 

I'm riding with...where 

they want to go...how well

they can ride.

A mustang in an arroyo

with my friends the crazy

wild riders....no one can

keep up with us...

But sometimes I have to show...

then I keep the reins close

to my chest...and pretend

I'm a thoroughbred.

Air and Space Museum

The Air and Space Museum

is a pretty empty place...

lots of old old air....

lots of ancient space.

"The way the clouds were..."

The way the clouds were from up above,

in the sky, looking out, looking down,

was magnificence of secret airy kingdom

of ephemeral dream like beauty, as if

peopled by the mind with invisible

rainbow beings too busy being being

to worry if fleshy entities could see them

or not....

Grand Canyon of sky-gap looks down 

through pool of blue down to earth,

vapor falls of inconceivable cosmic joke.

"A pretty, young woman still confuses me..."

A pretty, young woman still

confuses me after all these years.

As if her being there throws

the switch of the ghost

of my youthful exuberance.

The words don't come out right

and fall off her smile.

She, being friendly, 

shrugs her shoulders, grins,

spins and walks away...

as if to say:

"You must have been cute

when you were this way

when you were young."

Got it? Get it.

I had it, but I lost it...

I couldn't remember where it was.

I went looking for it...

Then I forgot what I was looking for...

Then I forgot why I was looking.

I worked very hard

Trying to understand why I felt

Something was missing.

I was frustrated, tired,

Angry, resentful...that

I couldn't understand.

I begged, pleaded, cajoled,

Prayed, all to no avail.

One day, I couldn't take it anymore...

I gave up trying to understand.

At that moment it appeared:

Everywhere in front of me.

Lotus Garden Retreat Center,  August, 2008

Two Days

For two days I will wake up

before my trip...wondering

what I've forgotten.

Like,  just before you die,

and you wonder if you should

have said something.

Jet Makes Emergency Landing

All the thoughts that go through your head

at a time like this....what time?  Oh,  just the

last fifty years or so...it makes more sense as a 

tapestry... more so than a linear plot clear movie.

It's all an emergency because it's never clear how

long it will last.

Any of it.

So, yes,  jet makes emergency landing...

is that any different than going to Seven-Eleven

for Ben & Jerry's at midnight?

Any different than looking at a rose?

When you look at the details, as in a tapestry...

it begins to make more sense.

In the details is the whole hologram.

Ho Ho Ho.

Empire

Pale orange to robin's egg blue

sun heating up the cloud color

burning postcard in my eyes

light going down in the west

red and violet and orange...blue 

sky and grey clouds look like

they are trying to follow the sun

into the mountain