p

The Boticellian Trees

The alphabet of

the trees

is fading in the

song of the leaves

the crossing

bars of thin

letters that spelled

Winter

and the cold

have been illumined

with

pointed green

by the rain and sun—

The strict simple

principle of

straight branches

are being modified

by pinched-out

ifs of color, devout

conditions

the smiles of love—

. . . . . .

until the stript

sentences

move as a woman's

limbs under cloth

and praise from secrecy

quick with desire

love's ascendency

in summer—

In summer the song

sings itself

above the muffled words—

William Carlos Williams

p

The Gate Emerging from Within the Body

Let go of emptiness and come back to the brambly forest.

Riding backward on the ox, drunken and singing;

Who could dislike the misty rain pattering on your bamboo raincoat and
hat?

In empty space you cannot stick a needle.

Hongzhi Zhengjue (1091-1157)

(Trans. By Taigen Dan Leighton and Yi Wu)

q

Real knowledge is to know the extent of one's ignorance
Confucius

p

On a single blade of grass
a cool breeze
lingers

Issa (trans. by Nanao Sakaki)

q

Perfection of means and confusion of goals seem - in my opinion - to
characterize our age.
Albert Einstein