Selections from
REISSUES, NEW ISSUES

"Falling Up and Down"

                   1.
In change
     we see the range
           of all experience,
                in ceaseless sensation,
Is there a winding down of motion,
     loco motion,
           past commotion
                into stillness?

                   2.
Motion ceases,
     yet, motion never was,
Only time undulating
     in space,
An antinomy
     a panoply,
           we cannot know.
I turn down the volume
     of the world,
But filled with trouble,
     the treble turns up,
And my ego
     shrill,
          still from its fall,
Plays out its full range
     of nuances,
          nuisances, all.

                   3.
When we throw ourselves
     into things,
We throw ourselves away:
          immersion,
               submersion.
We play all the time,
     high and wild,
          wild and blind,
Filled with trying.
     fed up with crying
We sigh,
          "From the beginning, nothing is."
     "From nothing, nothing comes."
But the house
     has the advantage here --
We are serious in our play,
     a serious mistake,
And the world,
     well, does it really
          mutter
               matter,
                    mother?

                   4.
At the altar
     of each moment's
          seriality,
     we watch for an opening,
          no triviality.
But if we seek a birth
     in a place of plenitude,
It means we're still in servitude,
And that captivity,
     is our reality.
Planetary service
     is not for tenderloins
          or pearly loins,
Each Buddha to be
     learns to wait
Through many lives,
     till there arrives

a motion
     picture
     showing
          suffering
     slowing
          down
And the rise of
     something finer—

the still life
     hidden in the
          flicking pages of a book
once alive,
     then, pressed,
          now decompressed
The butterfly
     returns to life
          refreshed
               refleshed,

Motion,
     has cast off commotion
And has learned
     both to move
          and to be at rest.
This,
     for matter is best,
A state
     of blessedness.

Next>>