The Emperor of the Big Wild Goose Pagoda

Preface by the Divine Pen:
Buddha's opened eyes
In the shape of blue lotus

Flower will open the eyes
Of the people to nothing.
Until he had eyes,

Michael Ondaatje
Observed, he remained a blank.
Nothing so approximate
To the honest stare of God.

There was a sutra
On birch bark, lost long ago,
That told the actual truth.
The one who wrote it burned it.