One mind’s truth is another mind’s lie
Perspective is the lock over which both vie
Equanimity abandoned, a lost, golden key
Which strips away the rust, to set both free
How many struggles, suicidial acts
Spent on ego’s altar, self-destructive pacts?
How many cuts, thoughtlessly given?
How many good intentions, needlessly riven?
The great wheel, an inexhorable, infinite turning
Upon which fears and hopes ride, endlessly burning
Whilst wisdom’s waters foam, spilling through cracks
Formed by desirous hands that manipulate “facts”
Any one, given thought, on any one, given day
Is a fish within the deeps that forever slips away
But for fisherman’s hand, thrusting down to grasp
As if hold is more than bringing ineffable pain’s rasp
The mind is not a prisoner, doomed to fish on any day,
There is more than this weary effort, being predator to prey;
Life is a placid lake, surrounded by beauty and growth,
‘Neath the impartial sky which nourishs fishmen and fish both
Loosen the illusory grasp, welcome equanimity’s touch
Find your center and your peace amidst life’s crazy rush
History is but a ghost and the future is a child, unborn
Be slow to look behind and equally so, foreknowledge, scorn
Focus upon this moment, it is all we ever, really have;
Let what beauty exists before you be perfect relief and salve
Release the hold of your mind upon grudges and resentment;
Why grant a moment’s thought to it when the cost is contentment?
These things, I tell myself each day, and some I cannot manage,
But devotion to the notion helps me, at times, effect a salvage;
I place them here for myself, but if they also help others,
then inadvertent gifts, perhaps, despite my faltering druthers
As I wish for me, so too, I ever wish for each and all of you
Winds of endless happiness that every delight and joy imbue
In those times when all seems dark and there is nothing but despair
That at least one light remains, to flicker evidence of remaining care
So that even in those moments when my own humanity, flawed, forgetting,
This gentle light, consistently, speaks of deeper truth that’s unremitting
Om Mani Padme Hum, Om Benza Sattva Hum, and unspoken, secret mantras, too,
For all the times I still forget, remember this lives here for you