The Hogan Studio : Koan Study: No Charge

A visitor asked Master Li if there was a charge to hear his talk that evening in the zendo. "No, there is no charge, please pay at the door" responded the Master.

Encore Poems

Family Tree

One side of his family had been English

Classy, stylish

Earl Grey tea from the bone china cup

Expert gardeners, bowler hats

The other side of the family had been from Russia

Exciting, dangerous

Vodka straight from the bottle

Cossacks on horses

He himself was from American middle class suburbia

And he hated himself for it

Pretending To Be Popular

There was the old house

With the green swirly carpet

And the big TV antenna outside

That somehow only got three channels

And then there was the house with the cerulean blue carpet

That we said was so perfect for a place in Florida

Where the rain played drums

On the metal roof of the porch

These were houses, but not home

Home was where

We had the bright red carpet in the bedroom

And in the coolness of the basement

We listened to music late at night

And pretended we were popular

The Hogan Studio

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January 16, 2011

Koan Study: No Charge