Rock Garden
After a visit to Daisen-in
In the temple courtyard,
rocks narrate
water’s biography.
It starts with a waterfall,
stones leaping
from a precipice,
like youth
plunging headlong,
spread-eagled,
into the air.
From there, the rocks
flow on, forming a river
where a solitary boat
is passing, oared
by a ferryman,
tireless and diligent,
as the bonsai watches
from shore.
The river ends,
the rocks gathering
in an ocean of white—
silent, eternal—
the waves lapping
at the feet of two
mystical islands.
My eyes wander back
to the river:
a turtle-shaped rock
that seems to swim
against the current,
desperate to go back
to the beginning,
the lost waterfall.
"rocks narrate water's biography" - perfect. A poem that does more than describe; it inspires
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