I forget what
mind is

like, all that
thought and private
history. Luckily,
even without
it, its distances

remain: desert,
mountain, sky. I

won’t say
I’m any happier
now, no
happier than sunlit

almond orchards
finding themselves

suddenly in bloom.

♦

From Desert by David Hinton © 2018. Reprinted in arrangement with Shambhala Publications, Inc. (shambhala.com).

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