.  NOTHING TO PROVE  _Who sees me by form,_  _who seeks me in sound,_  _wrongly turned_  _are his footsteps on the Way._  _ - Diamond Sutra, verse 00_  We come to spring  both the stakes and the gambler,  putting our lives on the table  as if life were ours.  The light of suspicion in our eyes  recalls our own faithless breaths.  Swayed by words  we wander the wind  bewildered, looking for evidence  of something not quite there,  a face - proof we are not alone.  You are not alone my beloveds.  You cannot be alone.  There is no such thing as alone.  You are the air I breathe  and I am your very breath.  Because of you  I cannot be sad in this world.  And what with breakdowns and so on  who would say it hasn't been hard going?  Do you look up at Death there  by the roadside  jingling chips of your fate  in his pockets,  watching us under the cutting north wind,  the brilliant moon, the wild white clouds,  not so much there as beside the point?  And if you ask whether I regret starting out  my voice rises like flocks of finches at dawn  and blows across the deep blue sky.  ## A