Still Point

10. Still Point
An ode to meditation - where it comes from, how it starts, how useful it is

Time now, time beckoning, time out of memory,
Glimpses of dreams not yet dared,
Reborn romance, second chances past reckoning,
The future, now Now, is repaired.
Here at the high mark where all waters rise,
Before they start falling away,
Widen the moment in front of your eyes:
You can dance through all time in a day.

Lamb in the oven; cinnamon, ginger,
Songs from your Grandmother’s heart-
Easter time, family gathers for dinner-
Take your place till they’re ready to start.
Early this morning, out under the apple tree,
Fall’s drops a-dapple with sun
Cidery air up to blossoms, cerulean...
Grandfather’s blessing’s begun.

At a still point,
And you yearn to stay,
But the world turns,
And it slips away.

Gone now the apple tree,
Long gone the family
Raised in the home that they built in its place.
You ride to the strains of a loopy calliope
Reaching for brass rings they no longer make.
But you’re finding apple trees everywhere now:
The forest in new-fallen snow,
Gull above beach cliff, towers in Tuscany.
Cradle them, then let them go.

In the windlessness on the canyon floor
Breathe the sky down in.
And again before
Each dip of the paddle,
Each flick of the pen,
As God writes your name in his hand.