Sunday, August 15, 2021
TEN OLD MONK POEMS (28)
YOU DON'T ALWAYS
You don't always see
water out of rock,
the old monk said,
but you see it
on the mountain.
~
IF YOU PRACTICED
If you practiced more,
you wouldn't get so tired
when you fly,
the old monk told them.
~
SOMETIMES NOT
Sometimes not
even emptiness
fills the silence,
the old monk said.
~
A PROMISE
A promise
is like a kiss
they get to keep,
the old monk said.
~
THIS IS WHAT
This is what
I trained for,
the old monk said,
to be here,
saying these things.
~
I DON'T WANT TO
I don't want to
say so much that
it gets crowded
on the mountain,
the old monk said.
~
YOU WON'T HAVE TO
You won't have to
tell us the color
of the light you're
walking into,
the old monk said.
~
DEATH IS LIKE THAT
Death is like that,
a NASA project leaving the solar system,
entering interstellar space,
the old monk said.
~
I COULD GIVE YOU
I could give you
all of them,
the old monk said,
but you still wouldn't
have enough. You
won't ever think
you have enough.
~
YOU DON'T KNOW
You don't know
if they're coming,
then they do,
the old monk said.
That's what makes
the party so fun.
~
