The Gardener
Santa Clara, CA 95051
theroot_us@yahoo.com

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harbinger

HARBINGER©

 

 

HARBINGER

 

 

 

of all the bamboo screens that ever hid a cemetery

Madame Marla's haggle toothed vindication

lace curtained windows

was no excuse for the subterfuge

 

how did the baker's ovens in her kitchen

have anything to do with telling fortunes?

 

it was a parlor of last refuge

and that accounted for everything

 

it was like tripping off to a hospital

a desperate comfort in one's waning hours

didn't really matter what she said

just that someone would take the trouble

to speak

 

the car wash next door

the Shell station on the other side

these were countries that did not speak magic

only the roses, which did not care

seemed alive

and the bees visiting

 

late afternoon long shadows

cooling concrete and asbestos

were harbingers of some sort of stupid future

where the wheel of fortune finally stopped

and the circus lights came on

obliterating reality

Shell sign, hugely yellow and red

cars on El Camino, blinking

Madame Marla gradually merging

with the canopied table on her patio

 

 

 

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF THE UNIVERSE

 

 

this is foolish

though my publisher wants the title

 

here's the rub

it's self-published

and there is this thing about a so called self

the absurdity must be evident

 

I was not born

have always been

pretty much infinite in extent

but

to forestall the inevitable critics:

being time is forty elbows

 

gave that one to Dogen Zenji

for free!

 

so born or been or whatever are insubstantial

one might say illusory

 

but biology

as in autobiography

contradicts the illusion

ever stub your toe?

existence in question?

 

pretty much laughter is who I am

and if that seems insubstantial

well, that's just the first chapter

more to follow

donations welcome

life story thus revealed

sort of a fractal geometric mandala

with forty elbows

 

 

AFTER MORNING ZAZEN

 

 

it has been windy lately

clouds scudding overhead

leaves and shadows play together

 

staring into nowhere

immersed

the allness of it

thoughts refuse to form

 

a symphony

the bumble bee a leitmotif

our neighbor's dog

barking at slight noises

is the temple bell

 

it fades away

 

 

SIMPLICITY

 

 

sun dried prunes are delightful

so a plebeian taste

but the halls of Montezuma seemed unaffected

or more properly

neglected

in favor of a hike through the forest

 

trees do not preach

speak louder than literature

are lessons in silence

leaving a habit of mind

unaffected by things

 

a portfolio of nothing that travels well

through any terrain

 

subways

the friendly skies of terrorism

departmental meetings and concrete ditches

the sixth extinction now underway

 

a stick of incense clears the air

 

 

QUIET

 

 

several stone tablets ago

the lightning ceased

 

oh, the circus tents of youth

places of estranged amusement

circumstances dictated in large

by unremembered elders

a visit to the district attorney

a pull of the one armed bandit

 

perhaps an affinity lurking in genes

remote families

reincarnations

even the mysterious lure of lotto

though thoroughly discredited

 

phosphorescent fireflies

burnt layers of tree rings

through tomes built upon them

the light

though no one can read by it

shines brightly

here on the windless plain

 

 

BALD MOUNTAIN

 

 

you with your hands on the levers

the real power beyond family names

has no preferences

 

your dream of dreams has no existence

better to sit quietly

without preferences

 

 

THE FLOW

 

 

“You're safe now.”

said the guard as the elevator went up

from starvation?

it just seemed incongruous

no wife, child, mortgage, debt to whom?

maybe graduation

stealing hubcaps would mar my career for what?

a world full of mysteries defined by someone else?

 

 

the battlefield lurched unpredictably

from thought to thought

music surfacing again and again

 

harmonies that plumbed the soul

so beautiful as to hide my face

cry in a closet

 

only to be met with Scat Band basketball tunes

playing drums in Tom Clark's dance band

after school

lead tenor sax in the school jazz band

C Jam Blues

confronted with that measure of vertical notes

“Let's hear it, Mr. Kline!”

 

and the elevator stops

there is no orchestra in jail

 

a lurking realization that it was all just some fantastic hype

a come on for some sort of plan

that never had much to do

with what came before all that

and what I already knew

 

the walls of the cell are vaguely green

vacant space with a small window in the door

dispensing with all the irrelevant stuff

sort of like practicing clarinet

 

the journey hops

from prison cell to Zendo where

ironically

I am gong player

no improvisation required

chant leader

“Your voice is too low!”

work leader

Roshi suddenly appears with a brown paper bag

to collect my trimmings

 

 

TECTONIC SHIFT

 

 

bannisters jolted from their long held positions

a great clattering of troubled dominoes

Hoover dam reverts to its origin:

primeval mud

where senators and whores wash each others feet

 

something is vindicated

no one is sure what

or can remember how it started but

just flight over the fissure with hopes

of landing

a deliverance in green tree tops

 

waters rushing drown spiral staircases

flooding water wheels

books floating everywhere

termites in their generation

rocking chairs of a forgotten season

perhaps Colonel Fry

in a tsunami rage

 

a certain satisfaction knowing

that what was

has met its Watergate

 

spring frogs lately are not singing

a couple of escaped neighborhood dogs

pay a visit

dogs I have not met before

followed by annoyed owners

subtly embarrassed because

in some incomprehensible way

probably I was responsible

 

I've taken home my marbles, though

senators do not call here

 

 

 



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The Gardener
Santa Clara, CA 95051
theroot_us@yahoo.com