Welcome to the website of Professor Jay Warren Clark.  Here you will find his writings, essays, thoughts and lecture videos.

Stone Garden At Ryoan-Ji

Stone garden, marker of a passing solitude,

Where is the peace that is the gift of such a place?

Could not your ancient silence grow in power

And hover over these huge kept stones that,

Save for night, know no peace, stones over which
Moss grows In silent conversation with their skin, 

Nurtured by the steady mist of voices

In winter sunshine, Moss to soften their granite truth

As cushioned feet murmur quickly away?

Where in this crowd my ancient friend

Are the quiet and the deep?

Must they too rest in the dark with the stones—

Stones that face padded feet and paper faces

With unknown room for the spirit of which you speak?

At the edge of your silent history,

You stand and fear the simple back-step

That could go deep,

And move your heart to speak,

Or to further silence.

© Jay Warren Clark 1978

The Stone Garden at Ryoan-Ji (“Temple of the Peaceful Dragon”) in the above print is the subject matter for the poem chosen for our Home Page. The Garden however is a metaphor for what the poet is really addressing, namely the Japanese Spirit or “Yamato Damashi.” The old Garden is very famous and a popular tourist site in the old capital of Kyoto, and is frequented by busloads of noisy visitors. Thus it is a perfect metaphor for the irony of something that represents the profound depths of the old Japanese worldview being visited by the uncomprehending products of modern Japan’s factory-school system. This irony however can be seen anywhere in the world where the artifacts of the ancient past are preserved, but not embodied, by the very people who claim to love and revere them.