Thursday, February 17, 2011

Avoiding "-isms"

Someone asked me recently if I was a Buddhist. I'm not sure what prompted that, but the answer rolled right off my tongue. "Oh, hell no! I don't want to be a Buddhist; I want what Buddha had!" Which reminded me of this poem I wrote several years back:



Noism

Christ was not a Christian.
Buddha was no Buddhist.
You think Krishna was a Hindu?
And Socrates and Lao-Tse
Ram, Kabir and Zoroaster...
Even Moses, having seen the burning bush:
What  -ism were they into?



Friday, February 11, 2011


It’s only the body that ages;

the heart
(or soul, or whatever you call it)
remains the same
all the way through.

With this in mind, wouldn’t it be a good idea to focus on 
the tenant, rather than on the deteriorating real estate?



~ from my most recent book, "Wise Cracks"

Thursday, February 10, 2011

Sometimes I need To Remind Myself...

I wrote this shortly after 9/11 when I was wondering what I would say to Osama if I ever got the chance.  Like anything genuinely profound, it's a message to myself (or yourself, if you're willing). 
I took the photo in the woods near my house--a rickety log bridge to an abandoned cabin.