The Path to Han Shan's Place

"As for me, I delight in the everyday Way,
among mist-wrapped vines and rocky caves.
Here in the wilderness I'm completely free,
with my friends, the white clouds, idling forever."
  – Han Shan, 12







We slip on her dogleash and are finally free.
There is a little road that is bordered by tough pines
that guard against the blaring highway.
What do we see ahead but the hope of open road?
A few more miles and out into the cattail
reeds and hawks hunting mice from cottonwoods.
Across the continent the mountains sleep.
We walk alongside the last of their night's dream.