This poem is based on a Zen story where a conquering general sweeps through towns, and people, like a sword through water. The general eventually comes upon a soul monk practicing a meditative prayer. The general announces himself, “Do you not know that I am the warrior who will run a sword through you without blinking an eye?” The monk answers the question by announcing himself, “Do you not know that I am the monk who can be run through with a sword without blinking an eye?” In the original story, the general throws down his sword and begs the monk to take him on as his disciple. The poem has a more open ending.
General Li Wong
A warrior
Of ultimate rank
Thinking to hi heaven
Conquered village after village
Like a sword
Running through water
Life scattering
Like only blood kin due
Until won fateful our
He showed up
At the peek
Of his kingly ambition
And every corporeal aspiration
A loan temple
A soul monk
Exorcising a breath preyer
Bringing a bout
These ordained udderings
Due you no who I am?!
I am the ruler
That will
Run my sword
Through you
Like water
Without blinking an eye
To which he was presented
A stair beyond belief
That most inviting peer
I am ruled by no won
Can you know who I am
Who can have a sword
Run through him
Without blinking an I
And what can lonely be learned
By a thousand villages razed
A cryptic seeing
A dooring pupil
That in is capable
Disciple to be
Of a terminal preyer
