Haiku-Koan Variations Study

The four winds begin
and meet in the nebula's
sacred space moment

Unquenched offerings
set sail on rudderless ships'
eternal return

Nothing lies hidden
in ceaseless activity
but nothing appears

Ripe fruit to the taste
snuggles under the covers
with yesterday's seed

Slithering pictures
gurgle newborn contentment
on ancient cave walls

Black rolling caisson
through the muddy streets of tears
reveals the infant

The Myth of Frater Eotaeous

Frater Eotaeous forgotten tale spans
the breadth of every land;
neither near, nor far, nor high,
nor low, nor when have ever sung
songs of the ancient Frater Eotaeous
who possessed a technomodern
eye. A fool, he was, when as a youth
he set sail without a rudder.

That tranquil, innocent trusted
his captains as their favored right-hand-man -
yet, servitude never bore gratitude to the princess
of wands, so Frater Eotaeous toiled
brilliantly in the shadows and shade.

As a jailed captive within a ring of nine
swords, Frater Eotaeous came to grips
with the whole futile cycle:
devastation-debauchery-plunder.

In time, the Frater nearly completely
retreated into invisibility’s cloak,
avoiding scrutiny’s wrath. The inner
realm seduced Eotaeous with temptations
of invincibility, until one day, he invisibly
shrugged off his shackles and debarked
at the first available port.

Eotaeous was haunted by a pressure
seemingly always lurking: industrial
masters demanded unwilling sacrifices.
As those captains flailed his bloody body
with ten birch wands, leaving
the scars of long-passed
battles, Frater Eotaeous felt a fire
within burn his brittle bones.

The eternal flame cried out in wharves
of tears as his dream flickered in the sky.

The queen of solar disks exposed
dreamed fertile abundance -
Mother Earth's modesty.

Still, a battle raged within Eotaeous’
invisible Fraternal heart; his bent
body lay shackled to the scorching
brutality of flames licking up
from the tips of the nine
encircling swords, purifying
Eotaeous within and without,
making of him a mover
more prime than even the Phoenix,
releasing the Frater as the ace of all
wands. He marveled as primal
force without remorse relaxed him
into releasing the scheme within
as a forgotten ritual offered: Frater
Eotaeous' death revealed new birth.

The queen of cups bared her breasts,
captivating her audience.
Every nearby emotion etched
the gamut from pain to joy
into her awareness as she served
nourishment through poetry, dance
and song. The ace Frater Eotaeous held,
of disks' inherent materialism, intruded
with an offering of leisure
and oppulence. But temptation finds
resistence when the waters of life
splash out of the cup whose ace
nourshes harmony.

So, it came to pass that Frater Eotaeous faced
his prince of cups, that seeker of intrigue,
demise's harbinger, a whirlpool beneath
placid waters. Yet, the strength he grasped
in the power of ten flaming wands wielded
by a gentleness only found magnified
through the prism of the wands’ ace, infused
the Frater with the pervasive calm
necessary to position seven solar disks,
given to him by their queen, and focus
the brilliance of the Sun through
their prisms, blocking devastation.

Frater Eotaeous whispered
a secret into eternity’s ear, “A chain reaction
of light ushers in every new tomorrow.”

Saturn's Rings

Awaken me!
Tomorrow's world -
excoriated, dimly lit
corridor-lined doorways
never creaking open.

Sleepwalk through fog
unguided, lampless;
wade an icy stream
between galaxies,
the bed falling away,
bottomless;
webbed myrrh tendrils
evoke ageless ghosts,
intuition sits silently.

Surreptitious eyes
steal furtive glances -
moonlit intrusion.

Nettle netting clutches
any passing prey;
black hole whirlpools
eddy up, randomly;
echoed,
sardonic chortles.

Distance,
light's sliver
winks,
pulse
quasar.

Tied laces -
our fingers
bow knot,
gripping souls
expose radiant flames,
burst dawn!

Dare open
coffin, step out
frolic:
Saturn's rings.