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Tuesday, May 16, 2017

Tightrope

It’s a tightrope,

only it’s not tight
and it’s not a rope
and it’s more like
a straight line
on the floor

and I walk it,

It really isn’t
life or death
if I slip
but still I know
it’s under
my feet

and one end is tied
to my past
and the other is tied
to someplace
I can’t quite see yet

and veering to my right
may be too little
and tipping to my left
may be too much

and sometimes
when I follow the
beat of my heart
I look at my feet
caught like fugitives
in a searchlight
and I find
I’ve jumped the track.

So I resume the practice
of my loopy walking zazen
respectful of all
that hangs in the balance:
my sobriety
my self-respect
my soul,

but I still try to enjoy
the cool sweetness
of the morning dew
and a tune
is always on my lips
and the cotton clouds
delight and awaken
my heart.

It can’t only be about
self-denial .

I could be easily pulled
from my path
from the sensual
toward the ascetic

but every one of my
excesses
courts future regret

and I’ll do the walk

in my own time
in my own way.

Too slow for some,
too swift for others

because I know
this time
on my feet
is so brief
and lightening fast
and to walk it
solemnly and prophylactically
seems hardly worth it,

a death sentence.

So I smile
and I continue
on this line
of mine
at my own
jagged, jaunty pace.

10 comments:

  1. I especially like the last two full stanzas.

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  2. all we can do, is to keep putting one foot in front of the other

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  3. Oh yes... and after all, once you have started to walk there is only one way --- forward

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  4. Such wonderful flow in this, Mosk!

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  5. Anonymous2:57 PM

    That tightrope, the 18 inches between the mind and the heart, can be such a bitch. Think that's why I decided to do Soul Work instead. Wrote about it here:
    https://soulsmusic.wordpress.com/2017/04/26/april-pad-challenge-day-26/
    Your poem started all kinds of inside humming when I read it. Which means I liked it immensely. Thank you,

    Elizabeth

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  6. Dance to no other's tune and walk your own road. This is a really wonderful poem.

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  7. Smiling and jaunty seems like a good way, yes..

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  8. Love this. Weighing the meaning of past and future, of choices, of who you are as an individual -- all great stuff.

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  9. This is amazing - the whole idea of walking a tightrope, and trying to stay balanced.
    Great work, B!

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  10. you're standing, and walking. that's good. I find myself sometimes not even able to do that. ~

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