I started this about an hour ago. I didn't know I was going to write a poem tonight/this morning. Check the technique: I was just letting go after a long day and it morphed into a memory of early encounters with the Spirit. That sounds like a good title: "early encounters". I don't like the last three lines yet (corny as hell). Time to sleep on it and grapple with this a little more once I'm rested. Okay, enough exposition-- read below to see how a poem was born...


I want to write a heart-wrenching love poem about today, tonight, every day, and every night. But it's a little hard. (The loving is harder than the writing). Easier, too!

So much to learn and so little time. I breathe in hope; exhale despair. Close my eyes and look deeply enough to feel my way back to the rec room where Sensei circled as we sat cross-legged in perfect rows. "Close your eyes. Focus. Imagine a single point of light in a vast field of darkness. Breathe in. Hold it. Breathe out. You are the light. Breathe in. Hold it. Breathe out."

Sensei circled the dojo as we sat
cross-legged and straight-backed in
perfect rows on the linoleum floor.

"Close your eyes.
Imagine a single point of light
in an empty night sky.

You are the light."

and the choir sang,
"Let it shiiiine!"
standing stomping shouting

"Halleluuulah!
Halleluuulah!"
till the church rocked with praise

stilling my stirred spirit

to meet each moment
with grace and compassion
"...breathe in... breathe out..."