The following prose poems are from my book PLUM BLOSSOMS, an 81 poem narrative about the peregrinations through Japan of the banished Zen monk Master Ko. I previously published ‘twentyone’ on August 18 of this year.

eighty

shuffling sand while tide ebbs or flows or somewhere in between, slack for the moment, then off again, as gulls scuffle over bits of this and that, drawing characters with a stick that like castles of sand wash away with coming waves, elegant lines without meaning, water cold and swirling, laughing, pants rolled, he has no destination but the crowing of roosters in the near distance

eightyone

empty head, open hands
doing what i must, making little fuss
i alone wrap the eloquent silence around me

Photograph by John Morgan, Walnut Creek, California. https://www.flickr.com/photos/24742305@N00/