BOOK V. MAHAYANA

MAHAYANA

1.
I love
The calm
Before
The storm,
That snatch
Of dead
Time where
Time is
Almost
Space and
Space is
Almost
Something
You can
Cut with
A knife—
Here is
Where we
Mark life.
Yet soon,
All this
Comes to
Nothing,
And we
Become
Nothing
More than
Mere sums
Of what
We were
Before
And what
We must
Become
After.

2.
But for
Now I
Can view
Life in
Between,
Much as
One might,
From a
Vantage
Point, view
A stretch
Of sea,
Calm yet,
At the
Same time,
Raging.
Out in
That great
Vastness,
Each wave
Bears a
Slice of
Life, a
State of
Being,
Always
There and
Never
Quite lost.
That is,
Before
The wind
Sends it
Crashing
To the
Shore (which
Is at
Once both
Where we
Die and
Where we
are born),
Only
To rush
Back from
The coast,
Where it
Becomes
One with
The sea
Once more.