A Billion Coins Of Dew

"Moonlight Over Hay Bales" by Paul McMillan

Ryushu Shutaku (1308 - 1388) was a Japanese Zen priest and poet of Nanzen-ji Temple in Kyoto.

I enjoyed a poem by Shutaku today in which he highlighted a point that resonates across the ages: there are many things that no amount of money can buy.

Inspired, I ran with that to express my own experience using the creative scaffolding of his piece.

I wrote the following: 

For all these years,

My certain simplicity:

Neither the consumer or consumerism exist.

All my possessions neat within a box,

My walking shoes by the door,

I lie in bed bathed in a full moon

Or, hearing peepers in the woods, 

I sit up: none can 

purchase pleasure such as this:

Spread across the field of hay, a billion

coins of dew!

Read Shutaku's original poem here.