AFTER READING LAO TZU
The one who speaks does not know. The one who knows does not speak,
wrote the old master, which perhaps describes the situation. Meaning we were all sad.
Meaning that when you were seized by desire, it was nothing more than flesh, bared above the collarbone
[...]
NUMBNESS
I have not felt a thing for weeks. But getting up and going to work on time I did what needed to be done, then rushed home. And even the main streets, those ancient charmers, Failed to amuse me, and the fight between The upstairs couple was nothing but loud noise. None [...]
EQUINOX
I must keep from breaking into the story by force for if I do I will find myself with a war club in my hand and the smoke of grief staggering toward the sun, your nation dead beside you.
I keep walking away though it has been an eternity and from each drop [...]
REMEMBER, BODY …
Body, remember not only how much you were loved, not only the beds where you lay, but also those desires for you, shining clearly in eyes and trembling in a voice—and some chance obstacle thwarted them. Now when everything is the past, it almost looks as if you gave yourself [...]
CROSSROADS
The second half of my life will be black to the white rind of the old and fading moon. The second half of my life will be water over the cracked floor of these desert years. I will land on my feet this time, knowing at least two languages and who my [...]
PASSOVER
“Art is what remains when the pot is broken.” —Chinese proverb
I know we are bound to the earth, and the cracked heart, old terra cotta, surrenders to vine.
Listen—I’ve seen wind stir the hair of the dead at Belsen, growing like art from the lacing grass;
what is terrible, even, rises. [...]
HE ASKED ABOUT THE QUALITY
He came out of the office where he was employed in an unimportant and poorly paid position up to eight pounds a month, with tips; when he finished his tedious work that kept him stooped all afternoon, he came out at seven, and sauntered slowly, gazing idly in the [...]
MONUMENT
To exist; to be among things. The art of nerve ends, masseur art Of the blind skin
Or the five Senses gone To the one sense, to well being
Lacks significance. Or lacks life. The thing By which the mind Sees!——if it wake——
The wooden sills, the grimed past Above the store fronts [...]
THE BRIDGE OF COMPASSION
Compassion becomes a bridge to the world outside. Trust and compassion for oneself bring inspiration to dance with life, to communicate with the energies of the world. Lacking this kind of inspiration and openness, the spiritual path becomes the samsaric path of desire. One remains trapped in the desire to [...]
HEY ALLEN GINSBERG WHERE HAVE YOU GONE AND WHAT WOULD YOU THINK OF MY DRUGS?
A mouse went to see his mother. When his car broke down he bought a bike. When the bike wore out he bought skates. When the skates wore down he ran. He ran until his sneakers wore through. Then [...]