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THE STOMPER
This teacher down our hall's a stomper.
He bellows at a student in his office:
"No, you say, Trevor, you tell me!"
He's like a plough-proud Percheron
who'd up and clomp your poor foot down
in the cobbled pubyard, won't ease off
until he gets some words, some thought --
till Trevor speaks in self-defense
to find he's sounding bright at last!
"Good-God-Almighty, Laddie, what do YOU think?"
When the moon silvers down on the waters of earth
they gleam, no matter their size or depth,
no matter their purity or fame;
they gleam: all of the waters gleam!
POET & CRITIC
Poet:
"Flamboyance! In the service
of Wonder!"
Critic:
"Not wonderful.
And too flamboyant."
MISTY
Misty is my neighbor's dog.
Her coat is motley-polyglot.
The children at her house long gone,
she rambles for petting all around.
Pat her, she sprawls out on her back
obscenely spread for anyone,
but when I'm walking home at dark
she's mine alone, she leads me on --
"Good dog, good dog!"-- barking away
the ghosts that shadow Dutch Creek Road,
my escort Misty, like so many
lonely, brave, and lewd.
IMAGINE
water drinking itself
*
stars -- seen by starlight
*
tick of a handless clock
AT TASSAJARA
My Original Face eats peanut soup
for breakfast. Working the garden I sweat
meditating invisible breath
pitching compost.
I bow to those on the path,
at evening on river rocks I rest
happy to see the leaves of bamboo,
as their wind-wavered backs silver and flash.
All through my dreams strange stories rush!
I wake to the calmness of 5-a.m.,
innocent hour! The Wood-bonged gong.
Approach to the Zendo. Sutras that knit
like sutures. Silence. Raking the gravel.
HERE
Miseries, clean your habits out,
abandon plea and alibi.
The salmon return, tuned beyond error.
Darkness shines, like an underground river.
How good to be us! Each moment dances
its overwhelming exactitude
on billions of footprint-sized
islands.