Japanese Suite

Koda Drum

Two men in loin cloths labor at the immense drum
with a sweating lust for thunder.
The drum has an oaken resonance.
Your ribs will know completely this Earth rhythm.
They need a sound loud enough to reach back
in their history.
This drum was harvested from an old tree
that was respected by the ancestors
while it was still very young.
A thousand years before this tree was selected by lightning.
This is the storm where the earth and sky 
first touched.

The men must find the rhythm
that celebrates this marriage
of earth and sky.


An Allegro Allegory

A white faced woman is dancing 
in a kimono the color of plum blossom.
A consort of tenor drums and flute
floats her across the floor.
Her hands are telling the story more than her feet.
She is an allegro allegory 
telling of the most abundant rice harvest.
Her hands are graceful birds deciding on a perch.
The many temple bells 
will ballet in your ears.


Zen Garden

In solitude intricate knots of rope 
are sinews woven tight
around a well-worn post.
A gourd ladle in a simple wooden bucket
sits on a stone bench.
The flute is water dripping into a clay pot.
This is the measured tattoo sound of a tenor gong.
There is lichen and moss on a moist stone
with the smell of pine
Hear the rub and click of bamboo, 
it is almost a groan.
A jade geisha fan of fern
interrupts the dense mist.
A creek is squeezing in a rush 
through a granite gorge.
  

Japanese Jar

An elderly woman in her basement 
found an ancient jar.
It was far older than she.
She struggles to get the lid off.
When the jar was finally opened,
inside she found only dreams.
Each one was floating 
so that it could not be touched.
The dreams escaped their constraint.
The lady rushed about 
to get them back into the jar
but they resisted 
and slipped away.


Rumi Suite
 
Whirling Dervish

Is there a spirit in the spin?
With clockwise logic,
are you turning away from the world?
Are your arms outstretched
to embrace some cosmic balance?
What are you seeing?
Chaos?
Light?
Or do you seek the dark?
There must be a sloughing 
of space and time.
You may find transport to the truth.
But, be careful with what is found.
Truth is despised
and so its proponents.

The world in contemplation offers:
no nostalgia for the past
no liking of the present
and no hope for the future.
 Your robes are immaculate
with circular perfection.
These are clothes fit 
to take you before your God.
 Can you hear the poet Rumi 
telling a philosophy of love?


Rumi at the Pillar

A timid oil lamp interprets this evening.  Shadows are a reality also.
Attentive scribes lean forward to listen.  The Persian poet, with his hand 
to the pillar, is circling counter clockwise.  His head is canted to the outside 
with eyes closed.  He constantly tells all that he sees.   His path is a quest for clarity.  
The poet's left hand is centered on the everyday world while maintaining equilibrium.   
His right hand investigates momentum and inertia.  He treads a path that seeks 
Information from constant motion.   Circling a well of information is a pivoting search 
for spiritual physics.  Centrifugal force is an elliptical bridge that sorts the essential from 
the ordinary.  His sandals scrape rhythmic patterns through the space-time foam.  
Echoing on the cool stone walls is an exhaustive pursuance of elemental truths 
and an axis to the fabric of time.  Rumi's face is brighter than the ambient light.


A Prayer for the Sufi Poet Rumi

I wish for you many gardens in your afterlife.
I wish you a Persian garden.
Look for a location that is walled
with trellised grapes and wisteria.
This is a place for serenity.
I wish for you a pleasure garden.
Here in a hidden cave
with just enough oil light 
to see the beauty.
This is a place for passion.
I wish for you a Bedouin garden.
The desert is without detail 
and is undecorated.
Yet, a lone nomad can see the night sky 
awash with the stars.
Here is found the symmetry
carved from Arabian math.
This is a place for the intellect.
I wish for you what the stars have promised: 
a garden of abundance
with gushing water.