for Dianne
How are students at being specific?
Do they circle it like cautious mongrels?
Write how The man held out the wooden stick?
Does anyone understand when you spell
it out, chalk slashing the board: The ancient
Asian monk, arms flaked like birch limbs, whirried
the dowsing rod toward parched earth. If you sent
them to Amdo, Kumbum Monastery,
showed them the path where Tsongkhapa’s eyes looked
on Manjusri, would it help or confuse
them, do you think? Well. At their age—make book
on it—wise lessons would merely diffuse
around me. Good writing came from teaching
it. I think it’s good. That may be reaching.
Roger Armbrust
February 1, 2008
