In a Japanese Garden tanka sequence

In a Japanese Garden

a cloud of stars

singing about their lives ...

ten thousand fingers

lead me through a garden

at the end of night

the slow hours

and stone lanterns

of a night pool—

a symphony

some god forgot

behind these

moss-covered walls is death . . .

must I settle

into this phantom life  

do I know better than God?

bamboo shoots

and a hand-picked iris …

the ikebana

in the temple alcove

wired into silence