What I Know. What I Wonder. Poem by Jan Freundschuh

I do preach the doctrine of the empty hand.
I know, I have some nerve to preach.
Nevertheless,
It works.
--If you are expecting God to come calling
At your invitation.
Make sure your driveway is empty
Of other guest's cars,
Or your invited one may drive on by,
Seeing that you are well occupied.

You must know that you are needful,
Have nothing of your own
Like negative calls to positive
To create electricity.

What is empty, beckons,
To that which longs to fill.

* * * *

Still, I wonder:
Who asked whom out on a date.
Did God ask me?
Or I, God?

God says I caught his eye (ear)
By the deal that I offered:
--I'll give you my future,
--If you'll download to my brain
--What' it's all about.
--I said I figured it would take 5 years
--At the most
--And then I won't mind dying.

5 years for enlightenment! ! !

(God thought I was funny,
I'd be an amusing date,
A lot of laughs!)

Another question is,
Who is the doer, the Cause for our choices.
Traditionally, in the East, it's God.
In the West, it's man.
I follow an Eastern path
But I argue with God:

Some days I say, -- You picked me up!
He says, You caught my eye!
I say, Yes, my offer was cute,
But you gave me the idea.
You laughed at a joke you yourself
Planted in me.
He says, Don't you think you are an individual?
(Then I'm stumped.)
What's an individual, I say
If we are all part of you.......yes, we're different.......
But of the same substance......
Some separated earlier maybe?
Some later, (as if Time exists) ,
We scattered, took different maze turns,
Were presented with different problems,
Found different solutions,
Or non-solutions,
How are we different?

At which point he goes silent,
Making me think harder,
The hints come no longer,

If I figure out the answer
You can be sure,
That I will tell you