My Mood Feels

like the third glassof a New Belgium juicyhaze IPA. Ancient wisdomon a napkin. Lighting bowlsand random deposit slips onthe top of a Panasonic stereo,one that only plays FM radio and cassette tapes. Like beingtogether with my family, but not requesting the reception that has to follow, orlike a sunflower picked off atthe root, thrown into a bouquetwith grandmother’s […]

Why Poetry is Well Suited for Space Work

Why did I think she had eyes thecolor of feces and sweat dipping tainted hairs white as burning phosphorous? What is wrongwith me? Why could I not justsee brown and white?  It’s as if my mind has to reenter the atmosphere before it can join otherhumans again. Not unlike astronauts,poets speak words with Neoprene-coated nylon.Their syllables irrigating the sandy […]

I Need My Used Book Store

Three Lives, in New York. From Intelligencer I need my used bookstore. The sensuous aromas of waxy skin jackets andmahogany shelves, paperskeletons in an excavatedashram of introspection.I need what it stashes awaybehind a Tom Clancy noveland an old National Geographic.Eureka! That one book, at sometime misplaced in my mind,appearing as a lost symbol ofwilderness, casting a garland-clothed silhouette, as flannel-shirted, torn-jeaned, leather- sandalled […]

Guru

I make offerings with my body, speech and mindMay we understand the principle of the LotusThe inherent purity of the mindThe jewel that is beyond contaminationIn this difficult times of poverty, sickness, ignorance, violence and greedPlease, Lotus Born, guide usOffer the shelter of your wisdom mindBring our experience to Dharma,Magnetizing our willEnhance our qualities and […]

Your Homegrown Smile

is delicious. It’sbright and round like cherrytomatoes pulledfrom a soil bed.Gripped by twohands, with white chalklined canals running across thepalms, the flowering green, sea monstershaped stems sproutaround fingernails, andhair on the wrists ofa sunburned forearm. When I think about yoursmile, I think about home.The rain on my family farm,all season long it rains.I think about the dirt fromthe ruby-like […]

Two Monks Arguing About Movement

It’s not the leaves that move. Nor is it the Banyan tree. The mind moves both of them,as if they were constructed of thoughts from the river’s basement,Rising from the cracks,where my grandfather usedto lay his line, like the idea of wind and Banyan trees- not unlike the ideaof crawfish and trout, everything struckwith the face of awe, a holy agreement.that we can all be residents of a sunlit world.

Parnashavari: Goddess of Natural Healing

Parnashavari. From quora.com ཨོཾ་པི་ཤ་ཙི་པརྞ་ཤ་ཝ་རི་སརྦ་ཛྭ་ར་པྲ་ཤཱ་མ་ན་ཡེ་སྭཱ་ཧཱ། OM PISHATSI PARNA SHAVARI SARVA ZVARA PRASHA MANI SVAHA Parnashavari (Tib. Loma Gyonma) is a healing goddess who removes contagious and epidemic diseases. Her name means “dressed in leaves” and she embodies our connection with nature and natural methods of healing. She is an example of an Indian folk deity absorbed […]

Where Deer Sleep

My three-year-old sonasked me where deer sleep.So I took him there. Steppinginto a space that is not meantfor fathers and sons, we founda ritual that has nothing to dowith us. An original grace. A serenitythat evokes the burden of redemption.That place where deer sleep, under aplumbeous sky, the pods of grass benttoward the center of […]

While Passing By a Church Near My Home

I think about how the hive mindknows how to act in one direction,with one will and one purpose.Chanting with all those lungs,a thin transparent tissue of light rays through the diaphragm, Just as Ayutthaya tests it with dreams, those unconscious proofs of heaven framed insidethe aperture only. Your saint, the one who youfollow with a deep personal love, like […]