kethrai's Diaryland Diary

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Koan

I believe in the search for enlightenment, I do. But sometimes I wish there was a big neon sign with "Enlightening Here, 5 cents" on it. Because most of the time, I stumble around barking my shins on theology in the dark.

This poem is entitled:

Koan

My professor used to tell the story
of a man falling over a cliff,
seeing a berry on a bush
and plucking
and eating it
on the way down--
it was supposed to be
some Zen kind of thing
and all my irreverent Jesus-
wept-and-died-fed-and-weaned
mind could come up with was
wow, what a jam
he was in
which was the wrong
answer on the Tao test
but that's okay,
he said, because we
all take different paths
to the same destination
and flip the same switch
for the same illumination
the point was, we
get there sometime--
I see the bright sunlight and flip
down the visor, reach
for the shades and
think what great day,
turn on the radio
and hear the new song
by the oh-he's-in-a-new-group
isn't-he-group and you
know, one of my friends
from that class says
everything is a huge cosmic
setup and
we're all on the breadboard of life,
ready to be sliced off into-a
slime-mold-penicillin-kind-of-thing
obscurity
and well, if it's true
what a great jam
I'm about to be spread with
you know?
You really know?

7:23 a.m. - 2002-11-23

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