AUTHOR'S NOTE

These "Blue Cliff Verses" are appreciative, and arose in response to particular koans in The Blue Cliff Record, one of the major koan collections in the Zen tradition. For Zen students, koans have often inspired poetry as they direct the mind beyond the rational, and toward the intuitive and the spontaneous. I am grateful for having been able to work on these koans formally with my teacher at the Rochester Zen Center, Sensei Bodhin Kjolhede.

Contents | Mudlark No. 11