something gloriously different

alex kanevsky

"Zen does not confuse spirituality with thinking about God while peeling potatoes. Zen is just peeling potatoes." 

Alan Watts

I have been writing this poem for fifty years.
Why should I stop now? I know I'll probably never
quite get it right. An infinite universe? I don't believe that
for a minute. Bigfoot? Loch Ness monster? Not a chance,
friend. Yet I am convinced that I can crack open
the sky with a hammer. And I know that if I do, angels
and other beings will spill out onto the tattered remains
of the gutted earth. But aliens visiting from space? Just
stop right there. Luck? Fate? What a joke. Don't even
bother me with that kind of talk. After all, I have this
damn poem to finish. And I'm not getting any younger.

james lee jobe

"In the never-ending sound of water, you will always find the Buddha."

Taneda Santoka

I am eating Peking duck from a bag
While watching the ducks on Putah Creek.
This world can be harsh, and I want to do right in it.
I have rejected cruelty from my life as much
As I can. I have begun to shy away from violent films
And TV shows. I watch what I say, I make an effort
To not hurt people with my words. I want to do good
In this life, the best I can with the time I have left.
The creek is lovely here, slow, dark. The ducks
Are used to people eating on these benches,
And they make ripples in the thick water as they swim
Toward me. Not know what I am eating, the first one
Approaches me. I pull a bite size piece of meat
From the bone and toss it to him. He makes happy sounds
As he unwittingly swallows his way into cannibalism.
Oh well. Tomorrow is another day.

james lee jobe

"If your compassion does not include yourself, it is incomplete." 

Jack Kornfield



Here are beautiful things.

The sky is cracked open like a broken window,
and an army of lesser angels has fallen upon us
with blessings. And love.

The wheel of being a human being has spun around
and has now stopped on the space that is labeled
'happiness.'

Someone smiles, then another person sees it and smiles, too,
and this continues until most of the world is beaming, smiles
from ear to ear.

There is something gloriously different about this day,
a thing that is wonderful and uplifting. A day like this has
a hidden power. a kind of magic.

And now the night has fallen and the angels have healed the sky.
Here are beautiful things; a moon, glowing golden and full, joy,
and starlight shining on your face.

james lee jobe

"May all beings have happy minds."

Karaniya Metta Sutta

poet & grandkid

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James