After storm catbird
in bush flicks her tail and cries
in Ten Directions

~ written August 2, 2009

Sunday Morning Thunderstorm

Waterfall of rain
Sudden summer thunderstorm 
drenched sparrow on ledge

~ written August 2, 2009

Fourth of July on the Farm

Fourth of July I
love most: comforting scared dogs
fireworks on the farm

~ written July 4, 2009 at Villa del Re, while reading Gary Snyder's "For the Boy Who Was Dodger Point Lookout Fifteen Years Ago" ("In this burning, muddy, lying, blood-drenched world that quiet meeting in the mountains cool and gentle as the muzzles of three elk, helps keep me sane.")

Canada geese fly in
V above city garbage

BRESCO Baltimore Waste Incinerator - photo courtesy of baltimorebrew.com

incinerator.

Gate gate parasamgate...

Waitress in diner:
"How do you know Kuan Yin?" she
asks. "Gone! Gone!" I say.

Not Falling Into Causation, Not Ignoring Causation

In afternoon sun
a shadow crosses the room
my dead cat returns

Inspired by the theme at

T.S. Eliot Was Wrong (or, How We Know "The Wasteland" Was Not Written by a Woman)

"I'm leaving you," he
says, while packing to go. I
was facing down Death.

"I cheated on you,"
he says, telling me what I
had already known.

"I love you," he says,
"but I don't like your body
when we are in bed."

THIS is the way the
world ends. Not with a bang, nor
even a whimper,

but with unkind words
said to those most in need, those
we say we love the most.

~ written August 29, 2010

Mondawmin MVA at Closing Time

"Now serving number
ninety at counter sixteen,"
robot voice drones on...

"That's why I say GOD
bless you," a man says to a
stranger behind him.

I pay bills. Children
crying. Women on phones say ~
"He grown, he too grown..."

"My phone 'bout to die
they had me on hold so long."
Lives intersect here.

Beautiful little
girl with braids smiles at me for
no reason I smile

Earlier I was
crying. My pain and struggles
merge with ev'ryone's.

~ written August 25, 2010

Joshu's Dog*

In gray BMW
a white dog barks an answer
to evening church bells.

~ written August 24, 2010

*Joshu's Dog, a Zen koan
"A monk asked Joshu, a Chinese Zen master: 'Has a dog Buddha-nature or not?'
"Joshu answered: 'Mu'. ["Mu" is the negative symbol in Chinese meaning "no-thing" or "nay" or, perhaps, "no way"]

"This is the barrier of Zen...If you want to pass this barrier, you must work through every bone in your body, through every pore in your skin, filled with this question: 'What is Mu?' and carry it day and night. Do not believe it is the common negative symbol meaning nothing. It is not nothingness, the opposite of existence."
~ from The Gateless Gate (Wúménguān in Mandarin, Mumonkan in Japanese)

~~~~~~~~~~~ to escape pain, you must go through it ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Winter's Last Bounty

Robins and waxwings
gather at crabapple tree
in the snow - feasting.

~written February 9, 2010

Late August Lunchtime

Small butterfly lights
on grass, black "eyes" on wings fool
predators - Beauty.

~written August 23, 2010

New Life from Old

Squirrels storing nuts for
winter. Leaves falling from trees.
Time to start new life.

~written October 29, 2009

Wellington Boots

Weather like Wuthering
Heights. Wearing Wellingtons like
crusty old Yorkshire man.

~written October 28, 2009