Koan Class Tribute - Reb Anderson, Tenshin Roshi

Song of the Great Physician
In the mess and fuss of the sickroom a pearl rolls under the bed.
When the parade stops the brassy sound pours out of aching knees.
Myriad hands and arms function, though I’ve burned the patient’s chart.
In the humming center of the existent, emptiness begs for a backrub.
Over the lush thrum of the non-existent, a chiropractor cracks a back.
Don’t say life & death are two when living nurses tend dead bodies;
Don’t make slush out of the grave distinctions carved into headstones.
It takes a cold pond to skate this blade: I float over nothing and serenely
bite frost.
CASE 84
Roberta Werdinger
JUDI’S “ONE FINGER”
Case 83