Extrapolation

From one book come many books

From one line come many lines

From one creaking floorboard

Come stories of many floorboards

Winds, rains, subsidence

Glory-boards of many stories

Dust, cobwebs, loss, passing

Stories skating over many glory-boards

Pull in the seat

Pull the seat in closer

Become nearer to the stories

Come, give lift off to your own glory

From that new house, almost completed

To that old house, in need of renovation

From that house of your friend

Or the relative who went to America

With the rubble, with the toil

With the stubble; who is to be the foil

I tell you my story, you tell me yours

We listen, with mindful listening

I do not tread on your story

You do not tread on mine

We nail down each other’s stories

Before we move on, to the disturbance of critique

Reflect On This

One last page

Only one

For closure

For closing

For bringing to an end

Yet it isn’t an au revoir

Nor a final goodbye

You see, it is a see you later

Not

I won’t ever see you again

There will be other pages

Many more than one

For being

For seeing

For continuing from the beginning

Yet it is unrequited

Not two-way flowing

Yes, it is, so please don’t bother

Not

That you will, even if I were to ask

Draw Lines

That I love you

Is that I loved you

That I loved you is evidently true

That in creation

We created

That in future we never created again

Here I am

Alone not lonely

Here in a place of forever good fortune

Many leaves

Turn through their colours

It is a season, there along with the others

That I remember

Meeting

Then persuading, yes that I remember

Yes

I am reminded

By another existential mirage

Mindful

Autumn colours at my window

Autumn winds in the sky

Here also plays

The music of the monks

Here then the meditation

Those twenty minutes alone

Without thoughts

But with the ambient sounds

Eyes closed

For these moments

Sat in stillness

Hands lightly held

Call, and response

Response, and call

There in the monastery

Beside the river

There, bathed in sunlight

Here, bathed in sunlight

Autumn, body as mountain

Autumn, mind like sky

Exposures

Somewhere

Way better than nowhere

On a journey

Free of hostility

Free of contradiction

Walk with me

As I show you where I know

Also

Where I don’t know

Or in what you decide to question

Camouflage my pain

At least in the moment

Help me to reach back

To that place

Of abundant joy

Steer me clear

Of the sadness

Of the betrayal

Of my own memories

Of my own wrong-doings