Short Breaths

Mountain trail–breath
Going up, going down
Deep lake below.

Tear down the fences,
leave the gates.

I cut the grass–
Green smells
Nightfall Stars
A child
Again.

Rock on the ground
Moon in the cosmos–
Breathe this.

The unreturned call–
Silent gaze
Two crossed paws.

Gatha

May the
Big Buddha
Moon & Sun
Rise & Fall
Each day
In your heart

Gary Snyder’s Real Work

We can’t be whole
Living outside the mind.

We can’t be whole
Living inside the mind.

We are whole Being
All for one
&

One for all.

That’s the real work
Joining us all
To each thing.

Two Poems

My dog is playing.
She leaps through summer
sunshine,
And seeks no wisdom.

Spider sits zazen.
The spring wind tears
down her web.
She spins, spins and sits.

–Spencer Prokop

The World Is My Zendo

At the start I bought books and filled my shelf
I read for hours and sat for minutes
Slowly my bookshelf shrinks
And my practice expands
But, still I cannot answer
“Why does a flower bloom?”

Perhaps
Just reading
Just sitting
Just practice
and a flower blooms.

–David Rush