“Knowledge plus ten thousand times is
skill,” Suzuki
said and he must
know. Practice is
what it takes to make things real and
there’s the rub. Why
can’t just knowing
be enough? Why
must the proof lie in the practice
when insight seems
so dazzling and
alot less work?
JDG
Though I enjoy each holiday, it’s the
day after I
really love –
when all
is
done,
when things
slow way down
and we feast on
left-overs, good talk, and unscheduled time.
JDG
The holly berries
start their slow passage to red
as I prepare to
say goodbye. Those berries and
those trees have helped me
through some tight passages of
my own. Their ever –
changing constancy has held
firm and true. To them I bow.
JDG
Those once green fields are now stained rust
and the song of
robins is met
with the wild
honk of geese. Scattered hay bales rest
upon shorn hills.
With the slow turn
of seasons, I
start shifting too, sorting what to
carry with me
into Winter’s
gathering arms.
JDG
No need to travel to far off
lands looking for
exotic stuff.
What’s right around
here is exotic enough. Once
I saw two dogs
licking a rabbit.
We started to
intervene, but they soon parted.
Who knows when they
first became friends
or how it started.
JDG (using the minute form)
Those two large dogs stood
licking a full-grown rabbit.
When did this strange friendship start?
~
Who broke the ancient
rules of the animal world
first – the dogs or the rabbit?
JDG (using the sedoka form)
On my way to work today, I
was blinded by
the light. I wish
it could have been
the bright light of revelation,
the warm light of
love, or even
the sudden light
of wise insight, but instead it
was only the
natural light
of rising sun.
JDG
Somehow the unexpected sight of those
swaying purple
flowers at
water’s
edge
eased
a gloom
that had spread
itself over
an otherwise sunny summer morning.
JDG
The measure of our lives can’t be
found through simple
addition, the whole
always being
greater than the sum of its parts.
Why focus on
one part or the
other, or on
the sum they make – as if the soul’s
worth could ever
be measured through
arithmetic.
JDG
aholdingplace 