Poem
for Wolfgang Laib
a life
of collecting pollen
from hazelnut bushes
a life of gathering word-grains
to find all you have wanted
all you have waited to say
five
mountains
we cannot climb
hills we cannot touch
perhaps we are only here
to say house, bridge, or gate
a passage
to somewhere else
yellow molecules
spooned and sifted
from a jar filled with
sunlight
pouring
milk
over
stone
you are the energy
that breaks form
building wax houses
pressed from combs
a wax room
set upon a mountain
an offering of rice
nowhere everywhere
the songs of Shams
—Shin Yu Pai
previously published in Equivalence (La Alameda, 2003)