THE MIND THE BRAIN

If you think that you're crazy
there's hope that you're sane
the brain is a radio what
channel is tuning you in?  My
friends all say what they've been
told to relay - what comes to
mind when the commercials end?

If you think that you're crazy
at least you're thinking or
being thought by something
worth thinking about.
The issue is not the tissue, it's

the stuff that's not that's
running through you that is.

My sight sends me sense
full of pretense and pretend
whether or not what I see
is out there or within is
still problematic bones in the
attic I flesh together with
a little help from my friends.

I Kant escape stuck here
between the covers of two
mirror images imagining themselves
out of matter the mother of
incarnation's _maya_ why a
wheel of fortune turns in my head?

Merrily, verily, life is but a
crawling out of miraculous mud
without edges edging across
slivers of silver birthing themselves
into nets of eggs with thin shells
veils and snails slip in the web
bloom like flowers and whither
like sails for lack of wind.

I sing the mind full of nothing
the crystalline monochord the
bowl full of jelly and wonder
but I wonder.
 

Copyright 1999,  Zane Ivy
 

Zane Ivy has a BA in Japanese language and literature and an MA in English.  He currently lives in Korea, where he paints, writes, performs music, and teaches.