Lifting the bowl of tea
I notice gravity
Gathered in the thick base.
Reading Ryõkan’s poems
Of landscape and solitude,
How light an empty mind.
Releasing flowers
To float downstream,
So things pass
One thing after another!
The key was acceptance,
Sliding into the lock
So the heart turned
As fear recedes
Into that which is past,
Oh, for more and more of now.
Taking this path
Is to accept change as a constant,
Only now the path and journey dance
As summer reveals
The hidden seed
Of autumn.
A long drag up the hill
Then
The long coast down valley’s flank.
Emerging from the tunnel of trees
With ferns splashed by dappled light
A stone bridge crosses a secret river,
Another place to call home.
