According to Buddha

On a trail atop White-Crane’s green cliffs,
My recluse friend’s home in solitude,
Step and courtyard empty; water and rock,
Forest and creek free of axe and fish trap.
Months and years perfect old pines here.
Wind and frost keep bitter bamboo sparse.
Gazing deep, ancestral ways my own again…

 give it time and we wonder why do what we can laugh and we cry
and we sleep in your dust because we’ve seen this all before
culture fades with tears and grace leaving us stunned hollow with shame
we have seen this all seen this all before
many tribes of a modern kind doing brand new work same spirit by side
joining hearts and hands and ancestral twine ancestral twine
slowly it fades
slowly we fade

spirit bird she creaks and groans she knows she has, seen this all before she has, seen this all before…

***

Edmonton, Alberta ~ Terwillegar Park ~ April 2015.