Genie Nakano

What have I been searching for?
Love? Enlightenment?

Maybe love
isn't something to find.

I go to the temple,
sit and meditate
with Shibuya Sensei.
We meditate 
until the sun goes down

He is determined
to attain enlightenment.

Yet maybe enlightenment
isn't a bolt of lightning.

Perhaps it's simply a practice,
an ordinary day
where love is practiced
step by step,
moment by moment.

A rehearsal
for the final performance—
the dance of life,

where we fall,
catch ourselves,
step, twist, turn,
glide, fly,

and then we die.

The curtain closes,
and the mystery begins.

Photo: of Genie Nakano by Ed Ito ,
altered by Genie Nakano,