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The one would be happy and cannot, the other may be happy and will not. A poem must express emotion, one writes, out of a different must from loam. To loathe subjectivity or to love objectivity is to pretzel the eye. Before the fern leaf unfolds, it resembles a sculptured human head. After I wore my Cards cap to zazen, he imagined a room full of monks in baseball caps. It was so cold I could see my breath. Buddha had a leaf of grass up his nose. He took too many cushions, they said; someone else slouched. Why pass judgment when so often we stay there, tires flat? Klesha has more kaona than obstacle, but obstacle's the word I know. There are 108 of them, Miho tells me. Pass the vehicle ahead of you. It's all traffic, and you're stuck, awaiting green.

--15 March 2015