Nobody wins a war. (2 haibun)

Pain and poverty

poverty and pain

life stripped to bone

absolute nothingness

only one thing left

a bright cold moon

in the midnight window

illumining a Zen mind

on its homeward way

--Baisao (1675 -1763)

The old man spoke of war. (haibun)

"Nobody wins a war. What have you won? Nothing. Everyone is still dead. War is just death, and we're supposed to live." The man who said that to me was 97 at the time. A World War Two vet and hero. The President has announced an increase in American troops in Afghanistan, after 15 years of war there. 

American bombers

will waste an entire village –

still the moon shines on.

james lee jobe Oct 2017

How many deaths of other people’s children by bombing or starvation are we willing to accept in order that we may be free, affluent, and supposedly at peace?

Wendell Berry

The prayers of Father James. (haibun)

In my dream, a lady grieves. I don't know her, but I try to comfort her. We pray together with a good deal of passion and intent in an old cathedral, and finally the monsignor comes to join us. Yes, he joins us, but it is me who leads us through the rosary. Now, hours later, I can still hear the Hail Mary being recited from within my heart.

In dreams, we might fly
or defeat a vast evil -
waking, we're still small. 

james lee jobe Nov 2017

Cesar Biojo

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james