Daniel Abdal-Hayy Moore: Cancer

.

The Great Bell of Chion-in Temple, Kyoto. Description from historic lecture booklet: "You are in the eastern outskirts of Kyoto; the city proper lies behind you to the west. The trees you see between the great beams of the bell tower belong to the temple-garden or park -- all Japanese temples have gardens, large or small as the case may be, in which their various buildings are grouped. This bell-tower is separate from the other buildings. It was erected almost three hundred years ago (1613) for a Buddhist monastery up here on the eastern hill. The giant bell of bronze is 108 feet high and weighs nearly 148,000 pounds; the priests ring it by striking it from the outside with a heavy beam of wood. The beam itself hangs from above by a rope and is pulled to one side, its end striking the great metal flower as it swings back. There is something marvelous and almost indescribable about the sound that rings out through the air. It fills all the space with its sonorous vibrations, deep in tone as the bass of a big church organ and mellow as golden sunshine. Even the most indifferent tourist is impressed by it.The sound lingers, and lingers, and lingers in the air -- if you stand quite near, say as near as those women by the railing, you can distinguish a low musical hum five minutes after the bell was struck": photographer unknown, c. 1915 (Oregon State University Special Collections)

Cancer creeps in on little cat’s feet

Cancer grows from the root upward

Cancer as a fact is a hard fact to grasp

Cancer wears no mask but hides in
private places

Cancer greedily drinks at the oasis meant for
healthy beasts and weary travelers

Cancer’s dark generosity knows no bounds

Cancer is that thing that once planted
can’t easily be got rid of except through
foreclosure or death

Cancer rides death’s black horse
but should be walking beside it

When cancer appears everything changes
as if death were drawing nearer
when it’s God drawing nearer

Cancer is a sown field full of
tares and rocks trying to

flourish at the farmer’s expense

Somehow there’s no sky above cancer
but only the closeness of a closed room
and a small expandable exit

that could become the sky

Cancer thinks its attitude is
our attitude but it
won’t get away with it

Cancer is a man in a blue blazer
waiting at the corner for a
man in a black trench coat but
when they meet the man in blue will
blaze and open up into a
night full of stars

Cancer clings like a monkey
sings like a drunken sailor
rings like a giant bronze bell
in the Pure Land of the Buddha

Cancer is the clearest indicator of
Who is in charge
that He might wipe it away
little by little

until we are clean again

or as never before

June 2012

Black Horse: North Road: photo by Isabelle Ann, 22 April 2010

Daniel Abdal-Hayy Moore: Cancer, from Ecstatic Exchange: Poetry of Daniel Abdal-Hayy Moore, 27 August 2012