Ryokan Under The Great Circle Route \ the animals

Alan: Ryokan has come into our poetry in many different guises.  For me, he often leaps unexpectedly through time and space, hopscotching “normal” existence, a sort of Zen poet Dr. Who.

Ryokan Under The Great Circle Route

Ryokan watches the contrails

spread across the stars

under the moon above Mt. Kugami.

Portents of a future

glowing and fading in the dark.

Too content to sleep,

he takes his brush, writes: “In the void of no-being,

all things are.”  With five quick strokes

draws moon,

mountain, three lines across the sky.

Nancy: I wrote this after hearing a news item about the siege on National Public Radio. 

the animals

                                          Sarajevo, 1993

zoo under siege

keepers at first

ran the gauntlet

bent double

food for the beasts

dodging bullets

the beasts

were old friends

had no nationality

but war is insatiable

war ate the food

war ate the keepers

the beasts ate the trees

even the bark and roots

even the dirt

one another

ate even their young

even their mates

today

the great bear

died of starvation

except for the mortars

the zoo is quiet

unless you happen to hear

ghosts

or wind

in the rubble

a voice saying

leave this planet

while there is time