Way of Peace by Pat Boran

Way of Peace by Pat Boran

i.m. Eamon Keating

In Adidas runners
and white karate suit
with the simple crest-

a dove round a fist,
Wado Ryu,
the way of peace-

down the Downs,
past the gate house gate,
a chubby druid,

a breathing oak,
a shifting mountain,
following patterns

modelled on monkeys,
eagles and cranes,
stray dogs and dragons,

bird man of Portlaoise,
puff-jowled adder,
dancing bear,

a man in his 60s
somehow still
sane enough to play;

and me, 16,
hidden among trees,
glimpsing the way.

---
found in the great anthology 'Our Shared Japan' (ed. Irene De Angelis & Joseph Woods)