April 1st, poem number one

The Fool and the Sage

They can see one another from across

The gaping unknown ocean between.
The Fool laughs at the Sage, his teeth with moss
While waves crash and rage, washing cliffs clean.

 

The Sage lowers his head, mutters a prayer,
Makes the sign of the Circle, and says

 

“Fool, I was once you as you are me now,
And so forever, the one and the two
Join beginning and end as we allow,
Each fool a sage, each sage a fool.”

 

The Fool cackles and cries and weeps with joy
Before he lets out a sigh, and says to the Sage

 

“My tricks and my jokes, you really must know,
With the their glitz, their flash and their bang
Are only pretty and baubled sideshow,
A second’s distraction, diversionary clang.
The serpent foolish enough to eat his tail
Knows the real gag lies in the wild waves
That lie between us, which despite our travail
Remain a mystery from our cradle to our grave.”

 

The Sage nods his head, strokes his beard
And draws a circle in the sand.  To the Fool he says

 

“Between our respective places there is no distance.
Wisdom and folly collapse so sweetly
Upon that single point where we shed guidance
And with a child’s witlessness begin the Journey”

 

The Fool dances as mad, throws his staff and with
Abandonment and glee, jumps into the sea

 

Where he is born away, and the sage smiles.