Sunday, December 26, 2021
TEN OLD MONK POEMS (47)
DON'T SAY
Don't say six
when you mean
half a dozen,
the old monk said.
~
I AM NOT
I am not
expressing myself,
the old monk told
the poet.
I am expressing
the universe.
~
LIKE PHOTOGRAPHY
Like photography
poetry is
about waiting
the old monk said.
~
SOMETIMES / ONE IS
Sometimes
one is
lonely
where only
one is,
sometimes
in a crowd,
the old monk said.
~
LOVE AND
Love and loss
are twin sisters,
the old monk said.
~
NOT EVERYTHING
Not everything
is something --
some of it
is nothing,
the old monk said.
~
LIKE AN OWL
Like an owl
taking a bat
out of the air,
death is
that sudden,
the old monk said.
~
IF YOU DON'T
If you don't know
what to say,
don't say that,
the old monk said.
~
PAINT LIPS
Paint lips on
all the great
monuments --
now that would
be art,
the old monk said.
~
IN SOME SCALES
In some scales
E-flat is where
C wants to go,
the old monk
told the band.
~
