MOONLIGHT’S kiss on water, wanders to the crimson crescent of a smile,
In ripples renewed, as though the world were beautifully askew.
Kindled from above, the tree-side river is aglow:
Entrenched on shy earth, chained to wild mud,
It is that floating face now only seen; or that leaf that drops its tree!
Rivers freeze then flow, in beats of doubt and cold,
Evening’s cloudy dark only sings of tomorrow’s night;
Lost waves cannot halt to a mirror-still, while a raindrop falls uncertain.
Alone with my warm breaths and seated as a lotus it is safest—
Vanity are my whispered prayers, failing to sing for you.
*Note: Satori, a term in Zen Buddhism meaning “enlightenment, that is Self-realization, opening the Mind’s eye, awakening to one’s True-nature and hence the nature of all existence.” (Kapleau, 1989).
Roman Carlo R. Loveria
