Lessons From the Zen Poet

Having written for years I finally
visited the Zen Poet, and asked
about his work — he said “nothing new —
been working on the same poem for
a decade; almost have the wording
right.”

Five years later I returned and he
replied “wording finally right,
working now on line structure.”

Five years later I returned
to find him rearranging stanzas
and whispering “not yet”.

An additional five years
yielded “punctuation
still isn’t quite right. And
I exclaimed, but Sensei
no one will know your
work, your perfect poem.

He replied “it doesn’t matter.”

Gary D. Grossman
Medusa’s Kitchen 1–25–23