Gabriela’s Country

Chocolate water land has rainbow
trees
And it’s very far away
So nobody can see
It’s a long, long country where
my grandma lives
There are flat boats with flat people
— everything is flat
Their hair is flat and
their crayons are flat
There are special sparkles
from the rainbow trees

— Gabriela CloĆ© 17-March-2007

At the Ale House with Gabriela

When I ask my 3-year-old
to dictate another poem,
she says “Write your own.
That’s a good way to do it.”
So I grasp a purple crayon
and begin.
Zen teaches us
there is no secret
nothing is hidden
everything is It.
This moment in the neighborhood pub
The butter this child smears on her bread
This table, this paper, this crayon
is It.
— Professor B. 18-March-2007