In Place 39

She has worn a path

deep enough to feel her way

with feet on glassed grasses:

ice on gate awakens her





In frost, the path is reliable, but in rain, its heavy clay slickens. She carries small flat stones, and when her foot slides, she drops one in that spot and tamps it in with her heel: slowly a cobblestone way is established.


    All night, a gentle rain fills the darkness outside
    My long years of hard travel are over at last

    -- Ryokan in Great Fool: Zen Master Ryōkan: Poems, Letters, and Other Writings 140 (Abé and     Haskell, tr.)