jodo (pure land)

no god, self ... or will.
religion beyond nietzsche
"life is living you."

temple guide

"To see the Buddha,"
He explained, upon the steps,
"You must go inside."

amida nishi hongan-ji

Grand impermanence!
Four times this temple has burned,
Yet still it persists ...

form and substance III

Words specify thoughts
as clothes mark ethnicity
What lies beneath them?

form and substance II

Words specify thoughts
as clothes mark ethnicity
What's underneath them?

form and substance

Words specify thoughts
as clothes mark ethnicity
What undergirds them?

relativity

some days, I'm heavy
as if gravity turned up
some days, I'm just dense

Iran

Incurious George
neither bending nor learning
thinks war's the answer

learning-resistant

Bush sends kids to war
never weighing his record
as if casting dice

Thanksgiving

take their gifts of food
thank God they're illiterate
take their lands next year

one more emergency

Disdaining budgets
George heaps pork on lobbyists
'"this one is urgent"

betting on war

Double down - roll 'em!
Even if you win the hand
Winnings are fool's gold

two alike

One foe unites us
Muslims and Americans:
fundamentalists

compulsive

Bush threatens Iran
This one won't be like Iraq...
Double or nothing!

speed helps

Airspeed is control
fly fast when you're near the ground
lest the earth smite thee

like wow man

Painting half the sky
forest fires make cool sunsets
almost like L.A.

GOP edits CDC

Only money talks
truth doesn't hire lobbyists
in Dick Cheney's world

pay to play

In Cheney's white house
everything is politics
truth has been out-bid

a blow against the Empire

Microsoft settled.
Quel idee impensible!
this judge can't be bought

tantalus

As if in a dream
flat-bottomed clouds mark the route
but my feet seem stuck

serenity

the desk-lamp hums
black rage boils at sixty hertz
I'll write by candle

purple jesus

Gazing past the stars
attacked by infinity
dwarfed by the cosmos

roulette

At ranch ninety nine
the food's good, the drivers bad
Do you feel lucky?

wimps

What evokes "Congress"?
Does 'ball-less' get a hypen?
We should vote on it!

off the table

So many health-plans
each feeds the insurance biz
lobbyists write them

something's lacking

A word for congress?
Does 'ball-less' get a hypen?
We should vote on it!

mentoring democracies

We'll send our fixer
he's Shiva, the god of death.
Just call him "Dubya"

therefore choose life

Each of us must die
but some manage to live first
this much, we can choose

bully to the world

We patrol the world
exporting our disfunction
without principles

Afghan vantage

Bombs and opium
refute Dubya's 'progress' claims
were Taliban worse?

G.O.P. mess

Nine separate campaigns
no one wants George's blessing
party in tatters

fundamentalists

Caught in the same traps
Islam, like America
succumbs to fascists

For the republic

impeach Dick Cheney
or if congress is too lame
disbar Addington

Precious Bodily Fluids

Apheresis day:
like some weird dairy cattle
I'm milked for platelets

mood lenses

A hot fragrant meal
brightens a grey drizzly day
joy fogs my glasses

Chief of Justice

Michael Mukasey
grants everyone due process
except for Muslims

cowards

Congress expanded
warrantless wiretapping
hail the police state

car-terpillar

Rubber-treaded worm
creeping across the bay bridge
farts soot and eats nerves

just do your part

Loose hands! Target! Run!
if you let the glider fly
it will carry you

sovereignty

As a citizen
who can absolve my silence?
My state's sins are mine

ascention

ladder before me
top obscured by scudding clouds
unready to climb

teleology

Love is all there is
biology's just setting
if we're not mere brutes

the use of memory

Gotta write Haiku
'til I off-load, they haunt me
rattling 'round my brain

external memory

Haiku compulsion
'til I off-load, they haunt me
rattling 'round my brain