I got mad and renounced anger;
the veil vanished and a deathless voice
sang a song of empathy more daring than revenge.
Truer than the truth, nearer than my skin,
this nakedness a mountain before dawn.
Tomorrow, I may forget, the veil again dimming vision,
but today this moment, the path is thus:
We are all one breathing each other.
Whoever is your other claim them as your teacher;
this is what the begging bowl is for.
Tomorrow when madness returns and all the subtle
and blatant tortures prevail, let us pray for the deathless song.
is a yoga and fitness therapist working mostly with the elder-sage population in Southern California. He is curious about energy, how things work and get repaired, and the idea of redemption. His poem “The Boulevards of Los Angeles” received an honorable mention in Beyond Baroque’s 2017 annual poetry prize and was published in the textbook Method & Mystery: A Research-Based Guide to Teaching Poetry (The Poetry Salon, 2019). “The Crossing” was shortlisted for the Into The Void Poetry Prize 2020. His poems have been published in Cultural Daily [see links below], and in three volumes of Sunbeams: The Joan Ramseyer Memorial Poetry Anthology (2018, 2019, and 2020). He is a graduate of American River College, UC Davis, and Pepperdine.
