Author Archives → Brian

empty sky

 

Awareness

is inherently pure like

the empty sky. Stress, annoyance,

and anger can temporarily

occupy its space but can

never pollute

it.
 

Haemin Sunim

 

an afternoon in hell


 

He cries for awhile, for no apparent reason.

Sniffs, blows his nose. Then goes about his

business, stomp, pound, smash, crush, explode.

Then cries a little more, sob, blubber, bleat.

It’s awful, he says. It’s of no use. He throws

his chair through the window. It’s a mess, he says.

The whole damned thing is useless. Now he’s

really weeping, cascades, waterfalls, rivers.

I shouldn’t bother, he says. It’s a big, miserable

waste of time. His wife walks in. Honey,

haven’t you finished changing the baby yet?

Almost finished, he chirps.

 

James Tate

 

the lovely arc of a meteor in the night sky

 

At the party there were those sage souls

who swam along the bottom like those huge white

fish who live for hundreds of years but have no

fun. They are nearly blind and need the cold.

William was a stingray guarding his cave. Only

those prepared for mortal battle came close to

him. Closer to the surface the smaller fish

played, swimming in mixed patterns only a god

could decipher. They gossiped and fed and sparred

and consumed, and some no doubt even spawned.

It’s a life filled with agitation, thrills,

melodrama and twittery, but too soon it’s over.

And nothing’s revealed because it was never known.

 

James Tate