1
Not trying to be all uppity about it
Just a notion and wonder if
You could ever get used to living
Across the street from a wat
2
Just the least bit of something
Passing by in a line
Them again this time with bowls
Looking for rice from the women
On the block
Nice touch to dawn
3
One thing for sure
There are more gongs than guns
In Laos and even though
The USA tried mighty hard to introduce
Military hardware into the culture
They failed and it is obvious why
Gongs are followed by prayers
4
We met a woman
As we walked in a lane
We asked her what she had been
Doing at the temple?
“Putting up lights!” was her answer
And there was no reason at all to ask
Any more
Questions.
5
The sudden realization that
the ones in white
Are nuns…
Not exactly enlightnenment
Almost but not quite the same
(continued, stanza break)
6
They appear quite suddenly
Standing next to and a step
Above you
Asking in English
Where you come from
As if you were more
Interesting and important
Than the statue of Bhudda
We are all leaning on.
7
The woman was
walking her cow through
the wat…..
they both appeared to
be engaged with the monks
without getting all
charismatic
about it
8
the teenage monk
invited us to prayers
come when the gong gongs
sit in the back
don’t say anything
we don’t mind
— Jim McCrary
(a wat is a temple in Cambodia, Thailand, or Laos)
Jim McCrary was born in Illinois in 1941. He spent the last half of the ’60s in Lawrence, the ’70s in New York City and San Francisco, the ’80s in Sonoma County, and the ’90s and oughts back in Lawrence. He won the Pheonix Award from the city of Lawrence for contributions to the literary culture, which was due most to a very successful poetry slam he co-curated at The Flamingo club in North Lawrence. His published books include West of Mass from Tansy Press; All That from Many Penny Press and DIY from his own Really Old Gringo Press: Mental Text (2010), My Book (2009), Maya Land (2006), Holbox (2006), Oh Miss Mary (2001) and Dive She Said (2000). His recent work has appeared in the journals Otoliths (Australia), House Organ (NY) and Galatea Review (Ca). His most recent chapbook Po Doom was published in 2011 by Hanks Orginal Loose Gravel Press.
The Coop: A Poetry Cooperative 
Through words, a pleasant excursion into the midst of another culture, and one that prefers gongs over guns at that. As John Lennon famously sang, “Give peace a chance.”