Four a.m. sandy courtyard, Orion rising

The great drum       booms
from the painted bell-tower
       And the bell then bongs

morning sutra chanting
in the Great Hall up another flight of stairs
       & one more terrace further up the slope,
       is the hall of all
       the birchwood blocks.
       that print the thousand-volume Triple Basket
       Eighty thousand carved blocks rank on rank.
       Cooled by grillwork open windows

—one block page says it,

       “live the wisdom gone beyond:
       consciousness is shapely,
       being, empty        formal;
       form,       is freedom,

these fast deep bows

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