Poem for Monday and Tahoma Animals

Zazen on Ching-t'ing Mountain 

By Li Bai 

Translated by Sam Hamill 

The birds have vanished down the sky.

Now the last cloud drains away.

We sit together, the mountain and me,

until only the mountain remains. 

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My Monday started on a sucky note with the news from DC about Trump, the police, and the National Guard, and did not improve any with other global news or news from my family, two members of whom currently have covid. I spent the morning uploading photos and doing laundry, then after lunch I watched the second half of The Hunger Games: Catching Fire with , who was at home with her dog who just had to have a leg amputated. 

We walked to the beach in nearly 90 degree heat -- I couldn't even put my feet in the lake, the bacteria count is so high that there are warning signs all around the park -- after which I needed a shower. Then I wrote some angry correspondence, we had veggie shortribs for dinner, and we started watching Poldark, which we never saw and figured since it's on PBS Passport we might as well. Here's some of the flora and fauna of Mount Rainier we saw yesterday: