Bit of a break in travel stories to bring you this bit of poetic goodness from Persian poet Hafiz:

The words guru, swami, super swami, master,
teacher, yogi, murshid, priest -- most of those
sporting such a title are just peacocks.

The litmus test is to hold them upside down
over a cliff for a few hours. If they don't wet
their pants ... maybe you found a real one.



And, maybe you don't need to look outside of you...regardless of whether or not you'd wet your pants.

I love surprises.  And, last night I got a fun one--with some punch.

We were walking back to the car from The Happy Gnome's Oktoberfest tent, where we had just seen a fantastic show by my favorite close to home band--Pert Near Sandstone.  Well, I was sort of off in my own world, humming to myself, when words stamped in the concrete sidewalk caught my eye. Curious, I stopped to look. I thought it might be a "The sewer/power/phone lines are here." type of message from the city, but it wasn't. It was a poem. A poem?  A poem.  "Well, sheesh," I thought, "You don't see that everyday." (and why not, I wondered) My sidewalk poetry radar now up, I scanned the concrete over the next few blocks...and there were more, here and there along the way...what a find!

Here's my favorite and the one that left the biggest impression (sorry for the pun--and, yes, it being a haiku probably has a lot to do with its elevated status):

Origami bird
You have such long wings to fly
Why do you sit still?