unlastingly

 

remember

it was april

standing side by side

on the temple terrace

the cherry-tree abloom

easterly a breeze un-

petalling the whiteness as

we looked beyond the pond

at misty southern ranges

-what doesn't change

as everything changes? -

-change doesn't -

simply seeing

seamless

mind and mind

one mind

no mind

hearing

a hand's sound

echo in the valley

this was the scenery. we had just finished a week-long sesshin. an exchange with our teacher, master ryotan tokuda, inspired me to write the above lines. that was twenty years ago. it could have been later. it could have been earlier. it could also have never happened. but it did. or i believe it did for otherwise why write this poem. or maybe it did not happen and i am just imagining things. trying to prove to you that i exist by making things up. real or imagined, all that is: display of impermanence. all that is or is not: impermanence displayed. scenery within a scenery woven out of a dream within a dream.

a dream woke me up this morning. i could vaguely hear a voice imploring:

hold on, hold on!

i cannot.

long parted, our reflections in the pond, yet april's petals keep falling.