Dream
the watchman’s lantern sunlight on a heron’s bill across the river . [ 1102 ]
Possessions
To live a simple life, I need not give up my possessions. I need only give up the idea that there is a me who possesses them, or who is, or who can be, possessed by them. Then they are what they are and nothing more; they are no longer possessions; they can be discarded or kept accordingly, for their utility, their inspired craftsmanship, their energy, their beauty, their form, […]
Canvas 398 — I Will Be Wise
Yes, I will be wise when I finish this clover chain;when my heart’s hands and my mind’s thumbsbind my tree’s limbs to my joy’s roots,my sun’s rain will beordained. “I Will Be Wise”Recently Banned Literature, July 2, 2014 Canvas 398 July 5, 2014 . [ 1100 ]
Last Ride
Imagine your paws on the tailgate and sudden arms that bear your weight through open fields and tender fate in clover time. Recently Banned Literature, June 11, 2014 . [ 1099 ]
On This Day
Craft, and practice; and, perhaps, water, on stone, neath a gray god’s tongue. Recently Banned Literature, June 8, 2014 . [ 1098 ]
Inside and Out
It’s our very good fortune that every window of this house looks out on lush green growth: the maples, pine, and cedar; the birches and firs; the garden, vine, apricot, and blueberry; the juniper and the dense, tall arborvitae; the fig, the lilacs, the rhododendrons; the ferns, moss, grass, and volunteer oak and hazelnut seedlings; and in the distance, the trees of the neighborhood. Each view changes from hour to […]
As Are We
There are only three hundred sixty-five days in a year, yet that short time is enough for the passing of four miraculous seasons. Each day is one of significant change, and though it holds reminders of those just passed, and promise of those to come, it is in itself unique and profoundly alone, ready to be welcomed, loved, appreciated, noticed — and then . . . and then, it is […]
Out There the Daylight
At one point or another, all of the problems in the world — the homelessness, the poverty, the hunger, the injustice, the inequality, the nationalism, the environmental degradation, the violence, the war — I have helped to cause. Now, even though the cause was here before I arrived, it is time for me to be the uncause, to root out the cause in myself, and see that it is not […]
Someday
In the evening, the lilac scent. When dry, the cones on the pine were open and appeared ready to fall. A little rain, though, and they have changed their minds. Now their upper halves are closed — not tightly, as when they are green, but enough to demonstrate their connection to the tree. While standing near the lilac behind the house this morning, I was visited by a little wren, […]
Zen Greeting
Let us know each other so well that each time we meet,we are glad to find we are someone else. May 1, 2021 . [ 1093 ]
William Michaelian 