Causing Confusion Poem by gershon hepner

As rain darkens a mountain
one mistakes a mule for a horse,
and water that flows from a fountain
is altered from that at the source.

The rain is so freely expressive
its wetness gives rise to illusion,
like thoughts when the water’s excessive
and quenches our thirst with confusion.

The mountains the rains tend to darken
are home to both horses and mules,
so take care to whom you would hearken,
for poets, like scholars, are fools.

Written at an exhibition of Chinese calligraphy at the Metropolitan Museum,9/8/06. The first two lines of the poem were written by Wuzhun (1175-1249) whose Zen-like style captured the freely expressive nuances of Chan (Zen) , with more attention to spiritual concentration than descriptive detail. Accompanying the two lines of verse was a picture of a man on a mule.

Linda wrote this verse after I gave her mine, inscribing it in the frontpiece of a book of Japanese poems:

Asian Courtyards

Tracing calligraphy in Asian courtyards,
my ears filled with the tune of splashing water,
I sit upon a low wall writing this
in purple ink
inscribed upon the flyleaf like a falling blossom.
And you sit near, encompassing your thoughts of love
in even lines of four or eight,
your cursive, running, hand
compressed in seal style upon your page - -
You write of darkening mountains,
mules and horses,
changing sources,
flowing fountains -
while I turn the pages of this little book
of haiku love
I bought for you,
reading you on every page,
in every poem, where
the ancient poets sitting once
in quiet courtyards
saw into your heart.


9/8/06