Living Zen Life

the hermit poets of Japan and China
satisfy a Zen aspiration in me
I cannot live so simply or remote 
I am not an old monastery monk
never held whisk or stick
what we share is Zen

of the sutras they are silent
monastery and rules left behind
living on mountains in huts they made
farming foraging to make their way
watching clouds pass streams flow
sitting cross-legged on rocks

I sit with a cup of coffee a glass of wine 
tapping away on electronic devices
all my needs well supplied
I could not be further from them
in space time culture
yet they draw me into their world

in common they stepped away
saw the Buddha within the Way clear
- seeking enlightenment a waste -
it was what they already possessed
to live what books or teachings 
overlay with obscurity and mystification 

their writings reveal Zen life
beyond talk theory philosophy speculation
beyond koans abstruse sutra logics
beyond Bodhidharma Dogen Lin-chi
realizing the Way they stopped searching
settled down with the mountains and clouds