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BETWEEN THE PLAY OF ZOOM AND WIDE ANGLE

Sapphire clear light brims the inner tips of my eyes
Between the play of zoom and wide angle, the world appears
and disappears. Between the constant and ever-changing,

momentary apprehension, a trace of there-ness
articulates absence. Within this absence, throughout the sensed
instances of mind’s apprehension of itself in the body,

there-ness pulses. The body itself
a constellation of instances, absence pierced by light
In the same dialectic of seeing

and not, the tree before me that I name as TREE
that I feel as spine, the rootless space
that the tree emerges from, the words I use,

the unnamed sensations that presage these words,
the space around, before and through,
not yet habitually there, mirrors presence,

as does the lake the moon. Tree of life, tree of descent,
tree of offerings/ Sapphire sure, etched
and resplendent! Between the habitually present

and the sapphire sure, between an array of color
and spellbinding light, no lines are drawn,
no center differentiates periphery. May the rays emanate all/ways

May the mind of the Buddha and my mind
be one with the world and beings
May these words and images be un-deluded

May this fleeting glimpse of reality
be replenished and endure. Far and near in a single glance,
in the midst of life, with breath and heartbeat

sustaining … O poetry, O crystal tree
that bursts beneath the tongue
and slaughters the eyes O peyote, O psilocybin!

Delusions all! Devoured and vanquished
The ghost of their rising lingers
in the deepening slash of these words

On this fourth Sunday in the year of the wood sheep,
in a city besieged cathedral of poplars and eucalyptus
All establishing visions dissolved and unborn

May I wake as I rise May it be auspicious!
(Since this sounding forth, the cathedral has been cut down
and hauled away. Not by the shifting earth,

but by the hands of men)
All that remains is the blue absence
And the light


Featured image of the hand of Tara.



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