Poem in Memory of Alex Hoelting
February 20. 2017, Tahoma-San Sogenji Zen Monastery

Departing ones, as always, seem to leave
like the flow of a fast, steep river;

Calling out to them, they don't answer,
pulling them back, they are unstoppable.

Looking closely, thirty-one years-
It was like a dream,
a seven-colored rainbow,
shining and radiant,
like the bubbles at the tip of a wave,

Last night the sun went down in the sky
so suddenly!

Yet at dawn again it illumines this world...

-Harada Shodo

A memorial poem was sung and offerings made in honor of Alex Hoelting, son of long time practitioner Kurt Shinkai Hoelting