From a tentative reference
in a tangential discussion
a confidence is taken,
a truth revealed.
A work mate has leukemia.
Churning, I must share
this news with a trusted
one. Hesitantly, I speak
in a darkened room.
Soon we will all
know.
(No. 74 in a series of responses to Han-shan’s Songs of Cold Mountain)
Tough news spreads fast. How can such news, stirred with compassion, assist in healing, if not curing the affected one? And with still more compassion, how do we live with the advice intoned at day’s end of many Zen sesshin:
I beg to urge you everyone,
life and death is a grave matter.
All things pass quickly away.
Each of you must be completely alert,
never neglectful, never indulgent…
(Numeric reference to Han-shan’s poem reflects the order of presentation in Burton Watson’s translation, presented as Cold Mountain, Columbia University Press, 1970.)
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