Landscape and Mindscape
Paul Dolinsky

1.
Trains to and from the future
Pass years like numbered stations
unnumbered times.
But the doors fly open at will.
Tyrannies, victories, infirmaries
all pass by,
Our seconds, baring none,
Leapfrog other seconds
onto that landscape,
And they push us toward
where we’ve been,
The looking glass
where we see ourselves,
With our shackles on.
The broken bones of defeat pile up,
like precious booty
In plenitude’s penitentiary,
that sad storehouse of plenty.

2.
But if we place our mindscape
on that landscape,
With a focused will,
There will be no devastation,
or wars of liberation,
But mutual admiration,
Forest and forager
will be as one,
We will be at peace
with our past,
Our parts will find each other,
We will find repose from the past,
And repast in the present.

By Paul Dolinsky
Growing Up is a Cosmic Thing: 1999 Poems on Buddhist Themes