Monks Near Bamboo

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Bamboo is too exact for Japanese

And Chinese mystics.  Unimpeachable

In perfect pipes, it bends in Buddha’s breeze.

His wise enlightenment feels reachable

There.  There his languid stands beneath the sky,

Kyoto’s stalks give light though far too firm

In green.  It never thinks that it will die.

Bamboo is not related to our squirm

Of worries in our less than upright lives.

Stalks only stand and wait.  If tidal wave

From earthquake threatens, bamboo calmly thrives

Because belief is like a temple nave.

  These tubes are strong because a tube shape gives

    Great strength.  A calmness in the grove forgives.

~ Phillip Whidden