Have you ever seen
someone become, in this life,
a bodhisattva –
I mean, who wasn’t one yet
when they started on their way?
If you can become
a thing you’re not already,
how is that trick done?
Not through potential or work –
that gets you Somewhere.
When your salt doll self
measures the ocean’s suchness,
the shore melts away.
What could be left to become
when you’re only here?
28 JUN 2024
Leave a CommentSo many choices
in a moment’s tiny span;
is it destiny?
No matter your direction,
the path will stay beneath you.
The door is open.
You stand at a great threshold;
which way do you move?
There is just air on both sides.
Never take the same breath twice.
27 JUN 2024
Leave a CommentHis Holiness came
to visit the Big Easy:
a mixed race culture.
He spoke to thousands:
they lined up for hours to hear
his message of peace.
His smiling face shone
on all those who assembled;
what great energy!
Practice compassion,
be kind and giving to all:
we are all the same.
After it was done,
the throng of rich, white faces
sought the French Quarter.
While poor, black people
(still the large part of New Orleans)
went about their day.
Five hundred thousand:
the dollars raised for this trip.
That’s a chunk of change.
20 MAY 2013
Leave a CommentIt is not enough;
this sad waiting to evolve
serves no real purpose.
What good is this time,
if we long for what is next
and learn nothing here?
It is not enough
to stand around here waiting
expecting great change.
What good are those dreams,
if no one can be inspired
to act upon them?
It is not enough
just to think and talk and wish;
there must be movement.
What use are mere thoughts?
They cannot motivate us
until they catch fire.
08 APR 2013
Leave a CommentThe tap left running,
wasting water and money;
all call it evil.
they watch it dripping,
blame who turned it, and cry
“How wrong! How shameful!”
No one moves to change
the sad scene; their sole action
is indignation.
Yet when someone tries
to turn the spigot’s flow off,
they are reviled, too.
Is it the action,
or our own nothing done
that is upsetting?
So you can describe
how the world has become mad,
and with pride, complain.
Just being righteous
without fixing what is wrong
compounds the problem.
What glory is there
in being right about things
that make life ugly?
There is no changing
without risking ridicule.
You must at least try.
05 AUG 2004
Leave a CommentInside the small box
that is our experience
there is nothing new:
the folded edges
let in small amounts of light
to read old news by.
But the lid is loose —
a gentle push opens it;
look, there is a sky!
If you throw your weight
against the side, you can tilt
the whole world open.
Just another box
that may look like open space
but has edges, too.
Some spend their lifetimes
thinking the box protects them;
they worship cardboard.
What lingers outside
is violent, wild and risky:
it is fully alive.
Without much warning
it may devour your small box;
why die that slowly?
Life is not easy;
anyone who denies this
is selling something.
Look! Your box and mine
share a common boundary.
Let’s leave together.
22 JUN 2004
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