THE LOST YEARS

For 16 years across mountains and deserts
He traveled alone, most of the lot.
A pilgrim to ecstasy, flirting with pain -
And not a drop of water, not a drop of rain.
     Up from the lush green, of your youth.
     A world of simplicity, security and truth.
     So uncluttered - how it all did change
     If there's a God in heaven, he seemed so strange.
Out to the wilderness, pushed on by desire
Through trials and sufferings, the cold blue fire
of one man alone, a John of the Desert,
Living on "locusts and honey", a prophet of sorts.
          And then the lost years....
          The broken hopes and fears
          Those years - lost in rivers swept with time.

A journey to a far country, sleeping in darkness
Far beyond the mountains, in valleys of pain.
Endless nights dreaming alone,
Quietly walking through cities, far from home.
          And then the lost love....
          The doubts, poverty and weakness
          Those years - far from the Land of Plenty.
For 16 years over mountains of trials,
Soldiers of Fortune, on the road to "Glory"
Long, hard and paved with disappointments
Like a Marco Polo of the spirit - an Old Testament prophet,
Or a Zen patriarch, or a Sanyassin:

**********

Don't tell me how difficult the Way,
The bird's path, winding far, is right
Before you, water of the Dokei Gorge
You return to the ocean, I to the mountain.**

Hofuku Keikatsu, 10c. A.D.

A vegetarian in shabby robe, my spirit's
Like the harvest moon - free, life through
Asked where I dwell, I'll say:
In green water, on the blue mountain.**

Ryuge, 835-923 A. D.

c. 2008, michael a. guy, all rights reserved except ** (public domain)