The Government of Nature

Contents

Contents I Buddha Reveals the Apocalypse to the Cowboy 3 Evening Lounge 4 The Path 6 The Ten Thousand 7 A Dream of Emptiness 8 Tsunami 9 Leaves 10 Walking with Snakes 11 A Monk’s Ode to Guan Yin 12 Guan Yin’s Treatise on Compassion 13 II Damascus 17 Flying 18 If You Tell 19 The Ancestors Speak to the Cowboy 20 Interpretation of Tongues 21 The Ancestors Explain How Envy Grew 22 Scapegoat 23 Elegy for the Appaloosa’s Mother 24 Against Forgiveness 25 The Government of Nature 26 III For James 31 The Pantry 32 Germany, in the Fifties 34 In the Park with My Grandchildren 35 Remember 36 At Lake Montebello with James 38 Scrapple 39 When My Heart Failed 41 In Raleigh’s Brownstone Hotel 42 On Hearing Beethoven’s Moonlight 43 Looking Up from the Naked Bed 44 The Touched 45 The Untouched 46 In Good Samaritan Hospital 47 Driving South from Salem 48 With My Family at Dinner on Easter Sunday 49 Evensong at Christ Church 50 Washing the Car with My Father 51 Petunias 52 Cold Mountain 53 IV Passing through Indian Territory 57 Predators 58 Weeping Willow 59 1963 60 Drowning 61 A Nightmare 62 To Those Who Would Awaken 63 The One Song of He Nan Monastery 64 Notes 65 Acknowledgments 67 The Government of Nature ...