hishiryo

in the heart of autumn
i sit on a cushion
covering golden slopes
with my robe

day and night
the rain’s voice pummels
chilling the marrow
of trees and beasts

am i thinking
am i nonthinking
dripping beyond thinking

meeting the face

its destiny you said
encounter of destinies
should one time we meet

it was an overnight stay
in a rundown hermitage
stars spread over the sky
greet your dark flame
some hidden sorrow of the sea

you see my hour go blind
you see shades roll over me
for i need to step aside
to let your echo pass
in the growing mountain

le rocher da la baume, 2000

passage

so drifting
is part of the stillness
sea's vast stillness
heaving heart of eternity

is this death now
tenderly dissolving me
in green reaches of water

is this still me
some human rest
murmuring with shells
in echo of distant tides
breaking on the beach

mandrem, winter 2006

ashen

night is mute
withholding secrets
if secrets you call them

revelations no one needs
to stand upright in the cold
and sustain the hunger of trees

silouhette of tales
blooming

sequence of events

sitting among highland grass
overlooking a dormant valley
at blue mountains’ waning light
eastern crags blurred in mist

pointing to this terrain
shaded in old plum-trees
heard tokuda say one day
fine resting place for monks

on one of the steles
your name
and this epitaph

kyuzan tetsu-un

journeyed far
when a cloud
now only
mountain peace

atlantic

ocean crossing
back to montreal
same journey as before
then it was some garden in england
now water everywhere
how much has changed
how much hasn’t

time’s remains
who’s remains
who remains

where it matters
little matter for change
things go through turnings
yet the same breeze
arrests you at the threshold

you are yourself
endings and beginnings
of paths converging
paths effacing
journeys to come

june 20, 1984

elixir

a word to you blazing full moon
you have made of this night
a thick potion where you brew
sunlight of azure skies
dregs of pitless howls

a river of pain
is what you pour into me
i feel it broaden as it runs
serene into the sea

room on the cliff

hours pass by
day begins to drift
twilight colors enshroud the sea

alone with roar of silvery waves
in a cliff-hanging room
and rocks' open-ended reply

it’s a single voice
where merge the caller
and the called

in deep slumber
find you lying next to me
from distant shores returned
face awash with moonlit waters

from where surfs whistle you return
in the garden of swaying palms
you become queen of the breeze