zen in a nutshell
there is no reality
the world is just NUL

header incoming
like a needle pulling thread
we do it just SOH

confuscious enscribed
at the start of all his works
a neat "STX"

and when he had done
his brightest students would close
with an "ETX"

the end of all things
universal EOT
there will be no more

understanding sought:
wouldn't you like to know, eh?
make your ENQuiry

ACK: a straight answer
the dog has buddha nature
like you always thought

the monks come to prayer
ascend the holy mountain
to the chime of BEL

political talk?
what is said can be unsaid
with good old BS

moving right along
a handy delimiter
Horizontal Tab

the queue is for bread
many hungry mouths are there
this calls for Line Feed

turn ninety degrees
(that's pi-by-two radians)
Tab Vertically

when all's said and done
we turn over a new leaf
emit a Form Feed

riding in grand style
Sun Tzu leads his army home
the Carriage Returns

(this one's seldom used)
"Shift Out" calls the overseer
the workers go home

a new lot arrive
to begin their daily toil
the cry is "Shift In"

Data Link Escape:
fly from Tibet to safety
DLE lama

undam the river
waters cannot be held back:
there must be XON

Device Control 2
we bend nature to our will
with this character

and turn back the tide
the ocean will not honour
our XOFF request

Device Control 4
haven't I heard this before?
ascii control freaks!

a shake of the head
I do not concur with you
NAK, I say!

the two act as one
the lovers move together
but is it a SYN?

the scribe takes a rest
and eases his aching wrist:
End of this Text Block

order rescinded
CANcel your actions at once
return to your post

the seer breathes his last
no more entrails shall he read
End of Medium

call for a new seer!
they send out at once for a
SUBstitute wise man

eat of the lotus
shake off these eartly shackles
ESCape the mundane

File Separator
red cord stretched between the poles
keeps the queue in check

loyalists stand here,
revolutionaries there:
Group Separator

bing is not elvis
analogy escapes me:
Record Separator

one here and one there-
a Unit Separator
the joke's getting tired

stare into blank SPace
you've done too much opium
wisdom has left you

unweaving the threads
a life's works are all undone
naught left but to DEL