Zen Sermon Served As Civics
Really looking forward to speaking again at People’s Church tomorrow. My “sermon” is called “At Sixes and Sevens: Zen Precepts for Troubled Times.” It’s all about living in (through?) a Continue Reading →
A Visit to The U. of Michigan’s School of Information
I’m off today to talk with the fabulously friendly faculty and administrators at the University of Michigan’s School of Information. The topic? A free-ranging discussion about how my students at Continue Reading →
Renga For Ben
All night, a late snow descends unseen, smothering the young crocuses. * Gray-hulled clouds float east at dawn, covering the meager sun. * My dog sniffs between the slats of Continue Reading →
Nov. 18, 2017, Reading at Crazy Wisdom Bookstore
I’ll be reading from my latest book, The Driftwood Shrine: Discovering Zen in American Poetry (Sumeru, 2016) at Crazy Wisdom bookstore (114 S. Main Street, Ann Arbor, Michigan) on Saturday, Continue Reading →
Master of the Nets
I have been known to mix my tracks with fishermen, to watch them cast below the dam, under brass-lacquered maples, out into the crushing white water— have watched as salmon Continue Reading →
On My Son Ben
I know a tree where you used to play, a hundred townies’ names sliced into its tattered trunk, a vast beech with serpentine arms that have long reached over our Continue Reading →
Counting on Countable
I absolutely love what the folks at Countable are doing to save what’s left of our government. You can get their app for your phone, and you can embed a Continue Reading →
New “Contemporary World Issues” Course
Why is it so hard to understand the world? Do I really understand the facts of current events? Do events taking place far away affect my life? What difference can Continue Reading →
Ikebana
—for Jessamyn Foliage should dominate, stems never cross or obscure the line poking heaven, all flowers odd in number, humble, without thorns, no hothouse roses, none of those bright, showboating Continue Reading →
Frozen Shoreline, Lake Michigan, Jan. 29, 2014
A gorgeous (and dangerously cold!) afternoon on the shore of Lake Michigan. I haven’t seen the lake freeze like this since 1997. It used to freeze every winter Continue Reading →