from Epistles

Epistle 1: To Hungry Poets

raised, ruled, ridiculed, run off

it has been beaten into us

no emotion, no cry

not on the street

not in the house of our own fathers

nor the ship

nor enterprise

or

August 1999, He returned:

from high snowy peaks

above the sub-continent

(o Milerepa in your cave in Labchi

how did you survive eating

how could anyone eat only (nettles)

or that time Rasheen (street captain

blood captain

said:

all of us here are poets

emotion is what is important

returned (walked out of Zhangmu

hitched and hired rides (130 km)

down the river gorge

(streams launched over cliffs

from a thousand points

slogged two mud slides

arriving in Katmandu

dead night

returned to paint a yellow mask

returned to piece together

not retrace or recreate but as was said (make it new)

how to sew the crazy quilt

this life

is

to find Trungpa's crazy-wisdom and run it

like mandala

EP:

only

emotion

endures

returned, found my brothers and sisters

in an upstairs flat on Homer

sat on hardwood floors n' ate

the time

(I will always remember the time) David Jolkovski said:

I come here because this is where I can say what really matters

our heart

is what we're

always eating