Lawn Mowing

Several months ago I wrote this poem thinking about Daido. I may have even posted it here before, but finding this photo I decided it deserves a re-dedication to Bonnie Myotai Traece, who you see here standing here next to Daido and whom you can learn more about by googling "Hermitage Heart Zen."

Lawn Mowing
  (for Bonnie Myotai Traece)

When May winds blow
  on long grasses, bending,
They kow-tow at the waist,
  displaying they have grace,
You’d not have thought them Buddhist

Roshi fires up
  the green Jumping Johnny,
Hitching on the gang mowers
  he cuts them on their knees,
A late Spring mowing prudent

Later, jukai,
The pink shorn novice kneels
  her head bare but for there,
Where he shaves her, as the grasses,
  all the stubble rows the same