Living Zen Life

"Who can step back doesn't worry
we blossom and fade like flowers
we gather and part like clouds"
Stonehouse (Shi-wu)*

I've stepped back
my mind needing stillness 
rarely stilled or quiet
beginning to be so

we blossom and fade like flowers
all who've been in my life
days together as blooms
many faded beyond memory

we gather and part like clouds
drifting away as together we came
dear ones dear loved 
faces lost in the intervening mist

time is a gathering place
where i may invite them all to return
sit with me in my room
help me to find my true self

*The Mountain Poems of Stonehouse, translation and commentary by Red Pine, poem #31, p.37, Copper Canyon Press, 2014.