I welcome old age and enjoy being free
rope shoes a bamboo staff the last month of spring
paper curtains plum blossoms daybreak dreams
immortality and buddhahood are merely fantasies
freedom from worry and care is my practice.
Stonehouse (Shih-wu)*
For a time I sit in retreat
trying to let it all go
such is my desire or my illusion
calm settles quiet around me
following wave on wave of change.
I will let my mind go where it wants
careful as I do not know my mind
not understand my own life
I am old now and alone
thinking I had grieved my loss
I waded deep into swirling life
at last to step back step away.
Those old hermits stepped away for good
I’ve not read of their regrets.
*The Mountain Poems of Stonehouse,” translation and commentary by Red Pine, excerpt and adaptation from poem 31, Copper Canyon Press. 2014
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