I Try To Get Back Too

[from Weegee's Manhatten - Arthur "Weegee" Felling]

"I've been thinking about the Five Hindrances."

"Sometimes I do too. Do you remember a poem? --'I'm caught up in the world like smoke blown everywhere.'"

"The dragons have defeated me," Hao said. "They've driven me so far into the world I can't get back to the silence."

The Monk appeared to be thinking about it all. Hao was too weary to prod him. After a while the Monk said, "I try to get back too. I want to find the silence again. But I can't get back."

"Will you stop trying?"

"I think I have to finish the life I've lived. "Ive been very confused."

"I'll be honest. You've confused me too."

-Denis Johnson, Tree of Smoke