In the summer of 1998, I learned an ancient Indonesian verse form, the pantoum. Its circular way with words appealed to me, much as the mandala's circular way with images had done for years. The pantoum, as I was taught, is four stanzas with lines set up as follows: 1-2-3-4, 2-5-4-6, 5-7-6-8, 7-3-8-1. One ends up where one began, knowing it for the first time, to paraphrase T.S. Eliot. What follows is a pantoum inspired by today's image:

Early morning shimmers on a choppy lake
I look not behind me at the sun but ahead
Squinting my eyes at what is to come
Sunset, the elder’s refuge

I look not behind me at the sun but ahead
Into the unknown mystery of endings
Sunset, the elder’s refuge
When answers replace the questions

Into the unknown mystery of endings
I turn my wrinkled face
When answers replace the questions
And dawn’s promises are kept

I turn my wrinkled face
Squinting my eyes at what is to come
And dawn‘s promises are kept
Morning sunlight shimmers on a choppy lake