Sitting in the temple chamber with the blinds raised, we saw the whole lagoon, Mount Chokai holding up the heavens inverted on the water. To the west the road leads to the Muyamuya Baarrier; to the east it cuarves along a bank toward Akita; to the north, the sea comes in on tide flats at Shiogoshi. The whole lagoon, though only a mile or so across, reminds one of Matsushima, although Matsushima seems much more contented, wheras Kisakata seems bereaved. A sadness maybe in its sense of isolation here where nature’s darker spirits hide–like a strange and beautiful woman whose heart has been broken…

…At the Shallows

the long-legged crane cool,

stepping in the sea

Basho, “Narrow Road to the Interior,” translated by Sam Hamill, the Essential Basho, p. 26-27

An Adirondack Address

What is it we see in you, Adirondacks, as we cruise across Lake Champlain? What mystery do you point out in your stoic indifference to sun and rain? What can you tell us of passing time; you, for whom our entire lives pass in a mere eyeblink’s worth of your own existence?

Your silence remains, as you reflection shimmers in the waves disturbed by our ship’s approach, and obliterated by the wake that follows. Your presence, piercing the clear sky above, is testimony enough.

summer mountains

a sudden chill

of Autumn