1 Early Autumn Question
soft rain
cool breeze
dancing leaves
this floor
this hour
this life
tell me
please
what more
what more
could there
possibly be?
2 Late Winter Reply
needled sleet
ice crystals
gray slush
this stone
this grave
this thus
don’t ask
please
these bones
these bones
have no answers
for one such as thee.
Richard Collins is a Zen monk, living at Stone Nest, in Sewanee, Tennessee. He keeps striving for emptiness but all he comes up with is poems and new places to walk his dogs.