SYMBOL OF REPEAT

after Basho

& of my crackpot nation

& of the village of my birth, I say

All the categories had to be seen as the same.

The mobile robot floating in this elevator––

All its books are in a secret library

Buried in the emptiness that is everywhere & everything.

There is much to consider

Before I return to launch point––

The blue desert that grew in the middle of the sea,

The twisted branches that grow out of storm-filled clouds.

Still, I come out

To view these dewdrops

That cleanse the perishing world.

14 November 2011

Spoken word version from Commune, copyright © 2013 by Jim Cohn.