What floats out in the water?
My troubled mind imagines
dire possibilities --
Instead of floating like
whatever it is that's out there.
Because whatever it is,
it is beyond angst.
It knows only the float --
the quiet act of floating.
And in its floating,
it cannot be lighter,
cannot be more at ease.
It is the thing that floats.
I only wish I could be
that which floats.
green-topped granite.
a gnarled evergreen
clings to the side --
clings without clinging,
effortlessly jutting out
over the chasm
to feel the sun & wind.
Nature's first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf's a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.
bougainvilleas
beside the grand temple steps
have dropped petals,
but it seems the gardners
never let them hit the ground.
Wine comes in at the mouth
And love comes in at the eye;
That's all we shall know for truth
Before we grow old and die.
I lift the glass to my mouth,
I look at you, and I sigh.
I don’t think I know, not really. But I don’t feel bad because I don’t think a lot of people who consider themselves experts do either. For example, one of the biggest cons in academia is that professors in business schools often get paid much more than their science and humanities counterparts on the presumption that they would go run businesses if they weren’t paid a higher salary than the others. Most of them would not. The idea that a thorough theoretical knowledge of the world of commerce and the operations of a corporation would translate into all the X-factors needed to head a company (e.g. charisma, risk-acceptance profile, creativity, and an internal emotional landscape that borders on [or is outright] psychopathic) seems laughable. If that’s the way the world worked a quartet of music professors would be outselling the Beatles and the ranks of Olympic gold medalists would be swollen with Kinesiology PhDs.
NOTE: I should explain the “psychopathy” crack. Many of us have quite enough angst from making decisions that seem to have the potential to ruin our own lives. Some can take a little more angst and are ok making decisions that might mess up not only their own lives, but also those of their children. It takes a special kind of reptilian-like nature (beneath the appearance of charm and polished interpersonal skills) to regularly make decisions that can screw up the lives of complete strangers by the hundreds or thousands.
Rangikura: Poems by Tayi Tibble
Built as a dōjō, a martial arts training hall, during the period of Japanese rule, this historic building is now part of the Zhongyi Elementary School complex. It’s right beside the Confucian Temple.
Tiger Riding for Beginners 