In one moment
the Louvre in Paris—
soaking up half a million
pixels of Mona Lisa's smile.
In another, Boston's Jordan Hall—
listening to 12 megabytes
of Beethoven's 9th
with the program and
Schiller's Ode to Joy
just downloaded in hand.

Point & Click
and I'm there—
the miracle of surfing
the Internet, a taste
of angelic power—
wishes fulfilled instantly.

When I'm at Kyoto's
Ryoanji Rock Garden,
a Zen master asks me:
“Is this World Wide Web
outside or inside of you?
If you say outside,
you'll never find
Indra's jewels.
If you say inside,
you're wasting time
logging on.”

Still I reply “inside”
and the master smiles : - )
“Then why are you
carrying all those
spiders in you?”

SWOOSH— a gush
of wind sweeps
my cobwebs clean,
the bamboo blinds
are rolled up and clear
is the great blue sky.
A white crane soars
over Fuji and descends
right into my heart.

Peter Y. Chou
Palo Alto, 11-3-1995