Showing posts with label Gary Snyder. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Gary Snyder. Show all posts

Thursday, November 21, 2013

HIGASHI HONGWANJI (GARY SNYDER)







In a quiet dusty corner

            on the north porch

Some farmers eating lunch on the steps,

Up high behind a beam: a small

               carved wood panel

Of leaves, twisting tree trunk,

Ivy, and a sleek fine-haired Doe.

               a six-point Buck in front

Head crooked back, watching her.

The great tile roof sweeps up

& floats a grey shale

Mountain over the town.






Note:  Have you ever known, really known, a deer?  I've had that pleasure and bucks, does and fawns have been our friends.  


It wasn't that many years ago, but it seems like a long time now.  


I think most people have heard (in one context or another with one meaning or another) the sentiment expressed that "9/11 changed everything."   I agree with that, i.e., it was that way for me.


I actually heard someone say it today, in an art history lecture called "Imaging Disaster," describing September 1, 1923 when the world ended at 11:58 a.m. in Tokyo.