i. oh silent day
We will all be released

when we embrace both the captive and the captor

and comfort them.

My friend Matthew says when you are in prison

you have to wash your clothing in the toilet

because if you send it to the laundry

you will never get it back.

and Heraklitus says

the way up is the way down

and Rumi says

there is up and down

and back and forth

and left and right

and yet there is only one direction

and that is the way of Eshgh.

oh silent day

oh when he washed

ii the holy land
the holy land is all around you

it is everywhere

above you inside you

the voices of your fathers

are not your voice

their horror too

this now can be silent

open your eyes o children of israel

it is time

surrender the ghost

iii Tree
Some seek truth by soaring the heights,

there where they would become one with the Boundless.

Others seek it plumbing the depths,

there where they would surrender and be Bounded.

And both of these ways are good for a time.

But the Boundless one soon becomes prisoner of his freedom

while the Bounded one in bondage knows little release.

Although I have somewhat preferred the second, I myself have tried both ways.

And I find myself thinking about the Sages of China.

They continually, patiently remind us

that there is no path and there is no way,

and that is both Path and Way.

We, they say. join heaven with earth.

But my roots still reach for the waters of the deep

while my leaves crave every fluctuation of the wind.

It is hard for me to embrace the paradox

that in contemplation of this very tension may lie peace.

Perhaps I am afraid to solve the koan.

So all I can do is continue to stand here

and trust that like a tree

I grow.