Poems by JR Solonche

THE BUDDHA ON MY WINDOWSILL

has a big belly, a big cloth sack 
on a stick over his shoulder,
a full bowl of rice in his hand,
and a big laugh on his face.
I, too, was fooled at first, but
later I found out that Budai’s
belly was full of laughter and his
cloth sack was full of laughter
and his begging bowl was full
of laughter and that his laughter
was his way of teaching fullness, 
so I laughed and was with fullness full.

GERALD STERN

You see, it's all crazy, all crazy.
There is a tree, a sycamore.
And there is the Ohio.
There is the Oder.
They are one river.
There is slavery.
And there is the Holocaust.
They are one abomination.
They are like two rivers flowing one into the other to make one river.
The Ohio and the Oder are one river.
It's all crazy, so crazy.
You see, we are all crazy like that sometimes.
You see, the world does that sometimes.
It makes us into its own crazy image.
You see, some more than others,
some more often than others,
some for longer than others.