The Path to Han Shan's Place

"Keep Han Shan's poems in your home.
They are better than sutras.
You can place the book on top of a screen
and read it through every now and then."  – Han Shan, 307








2

You should have arrived at the college earlier.
There was the placing of the bone back home
directly in the right place at the corner of the kitchen,
so that the new white young puppy could chase.
You should have taken another street through city,
this one an afternoon barrage of car lights
strung through the center of city like gaudy lace.
Oh if you only would have been patient!
Stopped there latched to the back ends of trucks
like the puppy teething against her bone.
What stirred? Looking into the rearview, nerves
like the pulsing roots lit up under shaken trees.
The sky had been blue powder for first time in days.
The fire was pleasant. Old man ahead of you
slow to turn, no blinker, hardly awake, sad.
You should have arrived at the college earlier.
As they stood in the courtyard doing poses,
breathing in the air as rose up from soft grass.
They didn't know you were coming; who cared?