Issan Dorsey's impossible portrait

Issan Dorsey, sometime in 1933- September 6,1990, was a gay zen priest and teacher and ex-prostitute, drug addict and female impersonator. He established the Maitri Hospice  at Hartford Stret Zen Center for people dying of AIDS during the first spread of the epidemics in the 80s. He was not a saint and never  pretented to be anything but what he was that was ungraspable, beyong thinking. A fucked up life sitting as  a living Buddha. Both and none of them.  A traditionnal koan presents two oxes fighting and disappearing as they enter the flowing stream of a river.Wasn't he smashing as a drag queen?

Issan had two faces

but I cannot choose any

the drag queen in a soapy bath

or the floating cloud

neither one  nor the other

will tell you the whole story

Boddhistvas and destitutes

are made of the same stuff

in close embrace

they dance

and twirl and turn

the single flower