a new trail in old forest

Koson Ohara - Egret On Rainy Night

YOUR BODY TASTES OF FIGS AND OLIVES, and I am here to devour you, bite after delicious bite. Your heart tastes of the kindness of strangers and of the faith that only a child knows. I love that, so I'll eat your heart last, holding it fast in my red-stained fingers.

james lee jobe 

--

Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder. 

Help someone's soul heal. 

Walk out of your house like a shepherd.

Rumi

--

Am I not destroying my enemies when I make friends of them?

Abraham Lincoln

Carp and Wisteria, Koson Ohara

HERE IS THE FACE THAT I CALL BEING ALIVE, and here is the other face, that one that I call death. Together they make up the two halves of the mask that I call water, or air, the mask that I call earth. This is the wind on a day so dry that I cannot make tears. This is the sound of my mother weeping, a sound that breaks my heart. This face will not come off in my hands. I am wading out into the river. One step follows another. The water comes over my knees, my hips, my chest. I am not the man that I thought I would become, but at least I am not the man that I was afraid of becoming. Here is my face, look closely. There is no damn lie in it. Goodbye. Now I am swimming away. 

james lee jobe 

--

Computers are useless. They can only give you answers.

Pablo Picasso

--

If I try, maybe I can be of some use today.

james lee jobe 

--

Find your place on the planet. Dig in, and take responsibility from there. 

Gary Snyder

Koson Ohara, Chicken Family

I AM MAKING A NEW TRAIL IN AN OLD FOREST. I do this by walking. Stride by stride, step by step, I mark the earth with the memory of my passing. I am a flag from a brand new nation. I am a large truck that isn't for sale. I can maim and wound with only a glance. I can heal with my touch and my smile. If I were a song, radio stations would not play me for fear of losing listeners. With each step, the earth rises up to meet me. The forest is quiet today, and these pines tower over me like silent giants. What can I do but walk? 

james lee jobe 

--

so delicate

a snake also sheds

his earthly robe

Issa

--

If you pay attention for just five minutes, you know some very fundamental dharma: things change, nothing stays comfortable, sensations come and go quite impersonally.

Sylvia Boorstein

--

You are the universe. The universe is you.

james lee jobe 

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