I remember growing up in the eyes of my best friend. If he thought I was an idiot, when I looked in the mirror, I saw one too. Mostly, we thought of each other as members of the inner circle, and the rest of the world needed to pass the test to enter. The worldContinue reading “Witness”
Author Archives: Dan R.
Requiem for an Elm Tree
Forty years ago, we moved the boys, the elder a precocious six and the younger a cuddly three, from an apartment with a lady downstairs who pounded on her ceiling, our floor, when the boys would move about as boys do. Our new house was just a few blocks from our old home, close enoughContinue reading “Requiem for an Elm Tree”
Our Love
Better tongues than mine have crafted odes that evoke the passion that bound we two but the need to share the breadth and depth of it all is just too dear not to try If you have seen young lovers whose hands when not held clasped one in the other, touch the others back, orContinue reading “Our Love”
Your Bodhisattva is Showing
I have walked through the forests with you, up frosted trails and beneath the summer sun along the Hudson. Each encounter is prefaced by a gift of seeds to the creatures native to the land we are entering, and by a prayerful acknowledgment that the land was once cared for by a people who neverContinue reading “Your Bodhisattva is Showing”
With You
I am with youSitting beside youAs the world tilts and spins Holding you close as the flash of lightningblinds us bothfollowed byIts brotherWhose rumblingsring and ringin our ears. Breathe deeply my loveThe storm that ragesBreathe slowly my loveWill soon be over.
Sailing in Circles
For the most part I am happy in my solitude.But sometimes I need the force of her countervailing windsto make sense of it all. Not lost for words,I can always fill the silence,but not always find the wayto match the tilt of the sailsto an impending dilemma. She would call my namein one of theContinue reading “Sailing in Circles”
Ghosts
Ghosts, yes, I talk to them all the time, and yes, they talk back. Where do they live? Deep inside of me, their homes were etched over decades, and both the content of their character and the nuance of their voices have filled their cavernous homes to the brim, and so conversation is quite easy.Continue reading “Ghosts”
The Monkey
I think and talk about my spiritual journey most every day. The books I read and listen to and the workshops I attend all focus on the serenity of the mind observed. With practice, the monkey if not gone completely will at least be clothed in a red vest, holding a dented tin cup, dashingContinue reading “The Monkey”
Mowers and Blowers
Meditations in a Suburban Landscape I cherish the time I spend with my Sangha. The Buddha would laugh at the little boxes its members fill on my screen, some I have been fortunate enough to share space with, others familiar to me though I have never had the chance to embrace them. This summer hasContinue reading “Mowers and Blowers”
Absence in Two Takes
One The dimensions of your absence are infinite. I smile now at my attempts to measure it from within, when the space we filled left no room to stand back and look. Shrieks and screams, laughter and lovemaking, the long years of raising our sons, now men with children of their own. I have comeContinue reading “Absence in Two Takes”