within another life

Within Another Life

Leo Stein

Those whose days were grudging or confused

May come back trapped within another life

As a boulder, or a pane of glass,

Or a door at suffers every time it's slammed.

If I return a boulder, love, some summer day

Come sit by me and contemplate these horses and these hills.

And if I am a door, come home through me,

Be sure I'll keep you safe.

And if a knotted,, twisted rope,

From long self-clenching and complexity,

Oh love, unbind, unbraid me then

Until I flow again like windswept hair.

Collected in Kimberley Snow's book In Buddha's Kitchen

Read and recorded by Radha at the Summer Palace in Beijing

July 24, 2016