Twilight Zen

This the Zen I practice
dim lit Zen of an eve
gazing westward where
Chinese Japanese 
ancestors lay sleeping

some I know
having sat among their stones
on monastery grounds in Japan
others I know
their centuries-old words

written word voices
refreshing clear
as heard spoken beside me
walking together on a road
side by side laughing

if it were not like this
I'd find another way
I wish to walk 
with friends I know
though they never knew me

I sit in grateful sangha
with many long dead 
who could not have imagined
me my time my world
grateful for their holy company