A certain kind of ghost

"Most Honoured One, I have a question to ask you. If sons and daughters of good families want to develop the highest, most fulfilled and awakened mind, if they wish to attain the Highest Perfect Wisdom, what should they do to help quiet their drifting minds and help subdue their craving thoughts?" (Diamond Sutra)

And as you walk

down the street –

the certainty of cold wind

slapping your face –

you’ll remember you wanted

to cure the incurable,

save the unsavoury and

split emptiness

with raw contempt.

And with a mastery you

didn’t think possible:

the certainty you will die,

on a Tuesday.

As if living, you’d made

love possible,

in all kinds of tongues.

Published in Eunoia Review

One day I also will pass – in memory of those murdered in Paris on November 13th 2015

“Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism 
or in the darkness of destructive selfishness”
– Martin Luther King Jr

One day I also will pass.

It may be in mid-November, when

the days grow short.

Or after a last drink,

an apéro en terrasse

with friends.

I may be ill. I may be old.

I may be young. I may be alone.

It could happen in Paris.

Or maybe New York.

Perhaps in Rome?

When my candle goes out,

when the smoke dissolves into

thin air, let it be.

But let it be said: I lived.

And I loved.

That's all:

nothing more.