hospital window —outside, waving and smiling,tears falling on frost
reflection
Watch, listen, and remember. He is all around us
No one can predict the time of one’s passing. More accurately, no one can predict when one dissolves into the bloom of a flower, or returns to the sky as a cloud that is beyond creation and destruction. It was therefore natural that the Hong Kong Buddhist community’s commemoration for Thich Nhat Hanh on the […]
Simple and Direct
A simple solution was the right solution to my meditation problem. But the principle of simplicity when applied on its own can lead to reductionism that ironically makes finding the solution to a problem even more difficult and complex. That’s because following a basic principle cannot provide a complete picture of reality. Simplicity must be […]
A Bond
As lemongrass holds the river’s first shimmer of morning light, you possessme. Drifting in the marsh, my fingertips dipping in the water, like a luminous blue god, you have become an idea that I can no longer doubt without proving my devotion. Yes,you hold me, you hold me, you hold me as wood holds the frame of a house, […]
If I Were a Philosopher
You know, a rose is not beautiful It is a clump of organic matter pulled from the dirt Transform it into a symbol.Attend to it. Make it beautiful I am not a philosopher. I am just a boy in love. You have my attention. But you knew that already.
Catacombs of Domitilla
Bones as mere decor. Stored in metallic ink, eachmorning, waking without a comparison point, folded intoa cast-iron pot, fragrant withcumin, and ripe with profaneadverbs, in the unvaccinated catacombs of Domitilla.
Birding
Fragile, shalehands holdthe womb wilderness isborn The CosmosWalleyed PikesJune nights andthe call of Loons Everything thatwe need to dream To feelTo love So littleseparatesus from whatwe need The nightyou wereborn Wearing the skin of God The worldwas born My new Cosmos And by the timeit was written even Green Heronin the cool spring marshcould tell me
A Moment in the Backyard
The way some fireflies hide within the obsidian grass, faking the blinking signals of cold heat, I waited for you to want my offerings, as badly as I wanted to givethem to you. Perhaps we shall soon understand why.
The Mouth of a Tiger Lily 2
drawn from the soil forever, forced by the tamed winds to grow prostrate, there is a morbid hiddenness lurking inside
The Mouth of a Tiger Lily
Once drenched by ferocious rains, steeping in sealable, blood orange petals with dimples of peppercorn spots on the skin,in a milk pale vase, in a country kitchen in the fall drawn from the soil forever, forced by the tamed winds to grow prostrate, there is a morbid hiddenness lurking inside