WEBVTT

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This next book has--

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this next poem has a
word from Zen in it.

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The word is "koan," and the koan
you are all probably familiar

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with is, "What is the sound
of one hand clapping?"

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They are those
unanswerable questions

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that Zen students are
supposed to struggle with.

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"The heart's counting
knows only one.

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In Song China, two monks,
friends for 60 years,

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watched the geese pass.

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'Where are they going?'

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one tested the other,
who couldn't say.

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That moment's silence continues.

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No one will study
their friendship

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in the koan books of insight.

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No one will remember
their names.

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I think of them sometimes,
standing, perplexed by sadness,

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goose down sewn into their
quilted autumn robes.

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Almost swallowed by the vastness
of the mountains, but not yet,

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as the barely audible geese are
not yet swallowed, as even we,

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my love, will not
entirely be lost."

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