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60 QUESTS

The following short verses were written between June 2003 and January 2005. Each is a brief contemplation -meditation- that, taken as a whole, have become a record of the time spent and the experieces of the process. They come from the same source as the sculptures, but, of course, in a different form.

They were assigned to sculptures as titles somewhat arbitrarily.

The poems have been produced, and were shown, as a digitally produced 'artist's book'. The book is a 14 page accordion-fold printed on Arches 90# watercolor paper; they are bound with Japanese paper.

All work is copywrite protected.

Sixty Quests Begin.
Hold - Open. Seen - Unseen
Fullness and Emptiness. Find more.

60 Questions
60 Thoughts
60 Sculptures
60 Poems
60 Quests

There is one Buddha.
There are many Buddhas.
So much to learn;
So much to unlearn.

So much to let go.

A bridge of delight.
Grimbilas' discovery:
The pencil led me.

It is what it is.

Sunset climbs the hill
To become the blue-black evening.
Each one is the best.
Each one is the favorite.
Each one is itself.

Dappled light --
Long shadows of the ancient tree.

Calm and still tie me to the earth.
To see each grass blade,
Each morning's moon.

Golden Rectangle
Squares - Fibonacci
Quiet
Stillness
Artist

The Devil's Slide.
I've seen that before!

Sky glows,
Darkness nears.
The weed puller's Quest:
Perfect the wild:
Garden.

Three-toed tree toad
Darting in squares.
Look out
Tiny white grasshopper --
     Dinner.

Renewal.
Still place of calm.

How small can big be.
How big can small be.
How can small be big.

Infinite Space - past - future
Found in one opened stone.

Revealed lines of molten flow
Ancient and Unknowable.

Deep Time's Stories.
Time's Deep Stories.
Stories of Deep Time.




Tekisui

A drop of water
In a flower. Reflecting.
A pause in its path.

On the leaf of grass
The universe in a drop.
How small can you see?

A bead of water.
The least drop fills this vessel.
Overflows with no thing.

Year

Suns -- High and low.
Thirteen moons -- Seen and unseen.
Four seasons. One Path.

Still Weight.

Light:
   Full in summer.
   Thin in winter.
Annual Promises.

Autumn

Autumn deepens.
The mantis climbs the wall.
Still.
One with its prey.

Autumn is here now.
Cicada's cry grows slower,
Still.
Wear a sweater.

The cicadas and the fireflies
Had a single season this year.

The falling leaves bring
The full moon to our window.
Winter's gift.

Rustling drying leaves;
Quiet softness of fallen pine needles;
Tao.

One oak leaf tumbles,
Sails, spirals, swirls to the ground.
Slow. In its own world.
Rest.

Lichen and the moss,
Tiny universe,
Soft bed.
Who lives in there?

Crickets, Cicadas.
Incessant. Slow and
Rest at winter's chill.

Tchk-a-tchk. Tchk-a-tchk.

                                   Tchk-a-tchk.
Cicadas final cry.     Winter.

Winter

Quiet fall of snow.
Winter solstice renews the light.

Winter morning.
Two squirrels 2 crows
3 squirrels 2 crows
3 squirrels 3 crows
4 squirrels 7 crows……

One Big Crow.
Three squirrels
Could fit in that crow.

Moon lit oak shadows
Drawn in the quiet of the new snow.

A single snow drop.
Settles slowly. Another.
Then the plow comes.

Thin Blue Sky - Winter.
Eight different snows.
Chickadees search.

Quarter moon and Mars.
Yellow-orange to blue-black
Winter pane of light.
December 31.
Moon.

Where does the moon rise?
Moving across the horizon
Always not to know.

Winter half-moon, clear,
Part black in the dark blue sky.

The quiet of the new snow.
Moon lit shadows drawn on
The winter garden.

The last quarter moon
In the winter dawn's sky,
Translucent blue.

Eos' orange setting moon
Rests.
In the soft blue-black dawn sky.

Spring

The yellow newness of the lengthening day
Becomes the pink and violet of April.

Snow melts - crocuses come.
Cherry blossoms return. Smell.
Now the ground returns.

Summer

Weeding in the fireflies: rising, luring.
Gentle summer.

The trees are talking.
Storm.

Tiny Light's rise
From the earth. Welcome
June's evening warmth.

Fireflies rise.
Warm evening.
Summer is here.

Fireflies rise from the new mown grass.
Summer's first deep darkening sky.

Weeding among
Summer's first fireflies
Rising in glowing eve
Cliché.

After the storm,
Sun.
Black tree trunks, wet grass,
Call to the concrete gray sky.
Light glows.

Nine hundred crows on a pine branch.
10,000 cicadas cry.
Summer's warmth enfolds the evening sky.

Seven hundred crows
In the oaks and poplars.
Caw.

Summer of fullness
A short life. Alas.
Winter skeleton.

Banyan canopy.
Amber glow in lilac sky.
Mangrove evening.