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Mt. Baldy Rohatsu 19782:30 am, hand-bell banging breaks star-brittle silence into ravens' scrambled flight. Black robes flare and settle, sandals snagged for cold run to colder sutra hall. A rumpled flock settles, sleep-fog burnt off by makugyo's roar, tossing sangha into dharmasong Shu zo mu hen ze gan do In every silence, one jay shrieks sutra pieces break off from a glacier just glimpsed in the west. Bo no mu jin sei gan dan While rain outside the zendo is a child patting sleeping mother, the butsodan holds an uncertain still life. Ho mon mu ryo sei gan gaku Now fierce broom-strokes slash the sanzen path brushed clear until drafts of knowing stir up all the dust again. Butsu do mu jo sei gan jo Black wings folded, I wait. Ravenous. |
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Issue #8, April, 1999 :
Santa Fe Poetry Broadside.