Voiceless Banners Blowing

The title poem of this collection of A. S. Kline’s poetry, invoking the silent patterns of cloud, is also a reference to the novices of Zen Buddhism, the unsui, who flow ‘like water or clouds’ from one place to another, seeking truth. The whole collection stresses process, both natural and human, living and unliving, and therefore relates to the concept of the Tao, the overarching process and flow of the universe, and of life. The author takes inspiration from both Taoism and Buddhism without being specifically an adherent of either ‘way’ of life and thought. It is rather the celebration of nature and its processes, which is exemplified by Taoism, and the concept of the fundamental emptiness, which the author interprets as the lack of inherent purpose or meaning, of the universe in its entirety, as revealed by original Buddhist thought, which together illuminate and provide imagery for the author’s own thoughts, in his own search for peace and truth.