A girl in the new lyric writing class wrote, “I just want to wail sometimes, all my clouds and rain. My disappointment voices, my mental pain. Trouble looms and ain’t no cops drawing their guns, commanding thoughts to stop.” She reminds me of those meditation instructions in 4th way groups where people are told practice stopping thought. Now I think of it like those Zen koans, what’s the sound of one hand clapping, because you can’t stop thought anymore than you can stop the river’s current but the premise might do something valuable. Intentional short circuiting. Like that great quote Bukowski’s left for everyone on his tombstone, “don’t try”. I think he meant not there’s no controlling anything, though everyone tries to, especially themselves which brings so much fighting and disappointment. I think when he wrote, “don’t try” he meant see through it like the title of her piece, The One who Didn’t Fight is the One Who One.