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This poem and others are available in my books, Nothing Works: Meditations on Aikido, Buddhism, the Tao, Zen, and other inconsequential things....and, Nothing Special, and Nothing Matters..., available thru Amazon.com, in print and Kindle editions and Barnes & Noble websites.....Also available as an e-book via Smashwords.com. Try this link: www.nothing-works.com for the full array of options.
Daily life is the battlefield
Nature is my sensei
As the swaying tree gives
Form to the wind
The waving flag
Fluttering in the breeze
I am the form of that
Which cannot be seen
Arising effortlessly out of emptiness
Growing out of nothing
Form without technique
Technique without form
A Way without a path
I reach into the Void
Where there is no duality
Becoming one with everything
Including my opponent
How, then, can I strike myself?
There is always a reason
Not to go
You're too sleepy, hurting, busy
The weather is too cold, too hot
It's raining, it's snowing
Something good is on TV
You finally got that date, at last!
Whatever -- there is
Always a reason not to train
Nevertheless, you go anyway
Your curiosity and need driving you
Knowing that you are chipping away
At the boulder of aikido
Gradually revealing and creating
Your own aikido-self
Of course, you never get there
It is a huge boulder, after all
And the chipping a seemingly
Sisyphean task
Still, you go anyway, chipping away
Knowing that the image
Slowly taking shape
Will never see completion
Picture this: A large auditorium
A sea of white gis
And dark hakama, thrown in
Summer Camp in San Diego
Many years ago
Probably over two hundred
Aikidoka In the room
Sitting seiza, sweat cooling
Listening to Chiba Sensei speak
We all listen attentively, of course
Leaning forward, trying to catch
And comprehend his words and meaning
His English sometimes hard to understand
Suddenly, in the now quiet hall
Someone lets out a loud fart!
Poor bastard, two hundred plus aikidoka And Chiba Sensei and he (or she) loses it!
Chiba Sensei stops speaking and asks loudly: Who can't control their anus?
This we somehow all understand
He grins and we all laugh - 'course
No one raises their hand!
Chiba Sensei's thought is that farting
Is one way for the body to lose ki
Still, if that last burrito with beans
Is still hanging around
What to do?
A small golden boy
Crouching under the shade
Of a large Joshua tree
His Razor scooter
Abandoned casually beside him
On the sand
A hot, harsh sun hammering
Down on the aikidoka
Practicing before the boy
On a large concrete court
A small, low fountain
Opposite the Joshua tree
Rolling desert all around
As the aikidoka practice
The 36 jyo basics Kesa, tsuki, shomen-uchi
With some Sancho one
Thrown in to further confuse
Gis and hakamas moving
And flowing in the hot air Shihan and shidoin
Watching and correcting
Bravely hiding their sorrow
As they watch us perform
Hats, sunglasses, sun screen
Not the usual attire
The sun and heat beating down
Sweat evaporating quickly
In the dry desert air
I wonder what the boy sees
As we strive for perfection
Achieving instead hot skin
Dry throats, stiff muscles, and
Occasionally, slammed hands and fingers
As we steadily narrow
That performance window
Closing in on the kill-strike
Risking injury and bruised egos
Perhaps this is true misogi
Moving and doing with intent
And focused minds
Honing the six elements
The five senses and the mind
Asking the desert kami
To wash away our sins
As we try to bring our
Bodies, spirits and centers
Into unification
07-29-2012 11:50 AM 
