Stating the Obvious
for Savannah
Thich Nhat Hanh’s poem “The Good News” is good news
Universal Design is good news
Sunday potlucks are good news
Song lyrics dedicated to a friend are good news
Vigiling for Palestine is still good news even with the 24/7 bad news in Gaza
Hand-drawn posters are good news
Bicycling in the city and Forest Park is good news
Pablo Neruda poem is good news
Saying “Yes!” is good news
Serene indifference to texting is good news
Health Literacy is good news
Cheerfulness is very good news
Classmate camaraderie is good news
Knowing what one is meant to do is good news
Not putting your light under a bushel basket is good news
Home sweet home (but not more than two weeks) is good news
Unfinished graph of consciousness poem on Palestine is good news
You (obviously) are good news
Cece’s Smile
For Mary and Matt
A while after Mev died
I went to a gathering at Jesuit Hall
In honor of Guadalupe Carney
Who had lived in Honduras with the poor
Scores of people were there
Across the crowded room I saw Cece
Who must have been 14 at that time
She saw me and let loose a smile to raise the dead
That beam of eyes that mouth and that hand wave were familiar to me
I felt instantly at ease
Happy and grateful
To behold Cece (to remember Mev)
For all I know Cece wasn’t trying to offer me consolation
She was being herself
And that consoled me
For a while that day
In those days desolation would appear just as suddenly
It might be seeing a woman in a wheelchair
Or one wearing a scarf in an unusual way
Or a Doppelgänger walking away from me down the aisle at Schnucks
Consolation came
But then went
And that was a desolation
Some of the time
Desolation came
And then went
And that was a consolation
Some of the time
There were times when desolation came
It was as if it was occupying my soul
Colonizing it
Setting up an infrastructure
Leading me to think:
This is the way it’s gonna be
And in those moments
(Sometimes those hours)
I was convinced
“This shit is here to stay”
I was always wrong about that, though
Which wasn’t always all that much consolation
All these years later
I remember Cece’s smile
A gift she unwittingly gave me
And which reminds me today
What got me through
Were hundreds
Nay
Thousands of moments like that
May we play a part
In such moments
For those feeling surrounded
By a loss that’s unfathomable
No Birth No Death (After a Sangha Discussion on the Lotus Sutra)
In ten years (or thirty)
Thich Nhat Hanh will still be among the living
Just like today
I will see him in your smile
“I Love Self-Righteous People!”
Dear Bella Levenshteyn
I’m astounded on a daily basis:
The hand-written letters I receive
From dear ones via the USPS!!!
In my circle of near and far-flung friends
We are keeping alive this art form
The following is from Marvin
(You remember, from my Beserkley days
He’s part of a sangha out there
That meets twice a week!)
I am happy to share his ode with you
Perry Schimmel
I love self-righteous people!
I dig them!
Best thing is—
They’re not hard to find!
They’re just being themselves
It comes so naturally to them
It doesn’t matter where they are politically
I’m not choosey:
I love the smug right-wingers
I love the irritable left-wingers
I’m drawn to them
I seek them out
At the cafés
In the plazas
During happy hour
At coffee and donuts
On Telegraph Ave
In the Rose Garden
I’ve got to see them
Be with them
Cherish their predictable rants
Their spouting off about any and everything
Bask in those precious minutes amid their dogmatism
Their incessant yammering about how right they are
Identify with precision the specks of truth
Their cocksureness covers over
I love self-righteous people!
They are my greatest teachers!
They are so generous too
They give me countless opportunities
Whenever I am with them
Or see them on television
Or hear them on radio
To realize just how much
They remind me
Of me
The Way of the World
—Anicca, Pali, noun, impermanence; the arising, passing away, and changing of all phenomena; one of the Bengali Buddhist teacher Munindra’s oft used expressions in daily life was, “Anicca, anicca.” See Mirka Knaster, Living This Life Fully: Stories and Teachings of Munidra (Shambhala, 2010).
“Those honey-colored ramparts at your ear”
Anicca, anicca
The life of the party
Anicca, anicca
20/20 vision
Anicca, anicca
BFF
Anicca, anicca
BMW
Anicca, anicca
“Thy eternal summer”
Anicca, anicca
Standing ovations
Anicca, anicca
The winning goal
Anicca, anicca
50,000 new visitors each month
Anicca, anicca
A twenty-year-old’s lissomeness on the beach
Anicca, anicca
Endless Summer LP
Anicca, anicca
That smitten look
Anicca, anicca
Nocturnal chatter orgies
Anicca, anicca
Ultimate orgasm
Anicca, anicca
Marvel of Mary Jane’s brownies
Anicca, anicca
Goosebumps
Anicca, anicca
Rage
Anicca, anicca
Dread
Anicca, anicca
Schadenfreude
Anicca, anicca
Kleshas
Anicca, anicca
120/80
Anicca, anicca
Kafka’s neurotic suffering
Anicca, anicca
Che’s motorcycle
Anicca, anicca
Sandinista Revolution
Anicca, anicca
Mona Lisa
Anicca, anicca
Twin Towers
Anicca, anicca
1000+ followers
Anicca, anicca
Dylan’s folk purity
Anicca, anicca
LOL
Anicca, anicca
Day at the French Laundry
Anicca, anicca
B/w print by Sebastião Salgado
Anicca, anicca
Roman hegemony of the known world
Anicca, anicca
USSR
Anicca, anicca
American global hegemony
Anicca, anicca
“Best minds of my generation”
Anicca, anicca
Cheer Up
Hungry ghosts are everywhere
But bodhisattvas are everywhere too
Suffering is everywhere
But the transnational sangha is everywhere too
This page is part of my book, Dear Love of Comrades, which you can read here.
