Huntington Gardens | Becoming is Superior to Being

Huntington Zen Garden (March 31, 2022) — Panorama by kenne

I have lost count of the number of times I have visited the Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens, collections-based research, and educational institution in San Marino, California. The Huntington is like a “riprap” — loose rocks used as a foundation that a person can assemble before them.

Riprap

Lay down these words
Before your mind like rocks,
                       placed solid, by hands
In choice of place, set
Before the body of the mind
in space and time:
Solidity of bark, leaf, or wall
                       riprap of things:
Cobble of milky way,
straying of planets,
These poems, people,
lost ponies with
Dragging saddles—
                      and rocky sure-foot trails.
Game of Go.
                       ants and pebbles
In the thin loam, each rock a word
a creek-washed stone
Granite: ingrained
                       with torment of fire and weight
Crystal and sediment linked hot
                       all change, in thoughts,
As well as things.