Home › Magazine › Spring 1996 › Destination Zero: Poems 1970 - 1995

Destination Zero: Poems 1970 - 1995

Margaret Gibson

Article Preview

To access this entire article and all other member-supported
content, join Tricycle as a Supporting or Sustaining Member

Join Tricycle

Sam Hamill

White Pine Press: Fredonia, New York: 1995.

233 pp., $15.00 (paper).

Destination Zero is a selection of poems that according to their author, Sam Hamill, asks us to follow a “lifetime of learning to speak simply.” Hamill divides the book into five sections, each with its own coherence. By not organizing Destination Zero book by book, he has de-emphasized the record of literary milestones on the journey and focused us on the journey itself.

The epigraph to Destination Zero is from Basho: “The journey itself is home.” Home is destination zero, that way of being moment by moment so fully in and of the moment that one dwells nowhere. As a body of work, Hamill’s poems give voice to the rich tension of being oneself and no one, being home and uneasily in exile from that place where one already is.

I was a child of no country

but the country of the heart. I felt

the hands of the dead slide up

beneath my shirt.

And now, when I write or speak

Share with a Friend

Email to a Friend

Already a member? Log in to share this content.

You must be a Tricycle Community member to use this feature.

1. Join as a Basic Member

Signing up to Tricycle newsletters will enroll you as a free Tricycle Basic Member.You can opt out of our emails at any time from your account screen.

2. Enter Your Message Details

Enter multiple email addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.

Become a Supporting Member

$25*

*With Autorenew

  • You Get
  • Tricycle | The Magazine - a one-year subscription to premier Buddhist quarterly
  • Tricycle Retreats - a new online video teaching every every week by a contemporary Buddhist teacher
  • Tricycle | The Digital Edition - web based edition of the magazine
  • The Wisdom Collection - nearly two decades of teachings by the world's most compelling teachers, from the pages of Tricycle
  • Tricycle Gallery - the best in Buddhist art to download and share with friends
  • Tricycle Book Club - online discussions with leading Buddhist authors
  • Tricycle Discussions - teacher-led explorations of dharma in daily life
  • The Tricycle Blog - our diary of the global Buddhist movement
  • Daily Dharma - heart advice delivered direct to your inbox
  • The Tricycle Newsletter - the latest news, teachings, events, and more, every Monday

Become a Supporting Member

Become a Sustaining Member

$30*

*With Autorenew

  • You Get
  • Tricycle | The Magazine - a one-year subscription to premier Buddhist quarterly
  • Tricycle Retreats - a new online video teaching every every week by a contemporary Buddhist teacher
  • Tricycle | The Digital Edition - web based edition of the magazine
  • The Wisdom Collection - nearly two decades of teachings by the world's most compelling teachers, from the pages of Tricycle
  • Tricycle Gallery - the best in Buddhist art to download and share with friends
  • Tricycle Book Club - online discussions with leading Buddhist authors
  • Tricycle Discussions - teacher-led explorations of dharma in daily life
  • The Tricycle Blog - our diary of the global Buddhist movement
  • Daily Dharma - heart advice delivered direct to your inbox
  • The Tricycle Newsletter - the latest news, teachings, events, and more, every Monday

Become a Sustaining Member