Deathless Dead Duck

A fourth of the flock, 
By the three forgot,
Near night’s opened door,
Lifeless laid on the floor. 

Life’s brief dream,
Fallen leaf in a stream,
Mere memory evermore. 

Matter matters not,
But carnage in rot,
By wood-handled spade
In earthen-clay laid. 
To higher realms I pray you soar. 

Trinity

From: Hymn to God, My God, in My Sickness by John Donne

“I joy, that in these straits I see my west; 
For, though their currents yield return to none, 
What shall my west hurt me? As west and east 
In all flat maps (and I am one) are one, So death doth touch the resurrection.”

Ariya-sacca (Noble Truths)

[woodcut no. 2]
Cattāriariya-saccāni (The Four Noble Truths)

dukkha (truth of suffering)
tanhā (truth of attachment)
nirodha (truth of renunciation)
magga (truth of the path):

sammā-ditthi (right view)
sammā-sankappa (right intent)
sammā-vacca (right speech)
sammā-kammanta (right action)
sammā-ājīva (right livelihood)
sammā-vāyāma (right effort)
sammā-sati (right mindfulness)
sammā-samādhi (right concentration)

#TheLeftovers

Days of the Dead observances
(Eve of Oct. 14, Observance 15-31)

National Geographic journal covers for birth-months of author, daughter and son.

July 1974
November 2000
April 2003