Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

Anyone taking a deep dive

into my poetry

will know

I hold Robert Pirsig

in considerable esteem;

there has never been a philosopher

who has held greater fascination

for me.

He wrote two books,

both of them personal journeys,

the first of which

still holds cult status

as he tries to explain

his relationship with his son

through motorcycles,

something we still mistake

as the realm

of roving gangs in leather

with fancy club names

and possibly undeserved reputations.

Pirsig was a scholar,

the last of a previous breed,

who talked of chautauquas,

a more civilized version

of later hippy culture

that perhaps greater emphasized

the culture aspect,

a circus for the mind,

not hallucinogenic

but expanding its potential

to learn,

what we now think

only institutions behind walls

can provide.

Sometimes you lose something

by locking it away permanently

somewhere.

Pirsig may have struggled

to reach his conclusions

but it was worth it.

Oh, it was worth it.

And the freedom he found

was, and still is,

out there.