You Reach into the Mountain

.
With your robe seemingly of
the same stuff as this sandstone sky,
it's hard to see you apart
from it all; to get that high
alone shows wisdom,
so I wonder what it means
when you softly roll back your sleeve.

How to do nothing damage?

But then you reach into the mountain
and pluck the jewel out of the rock.

This crack remains
to bless all we
who can see it; the sun breathes
just enough to whisper
the fingers of dark.



by jerry gordon
5.8.05
on a painted screen in a hermit's
shack painted by Soga Shohaku (1759)