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The Literary Review

Page 91

Table of Contents

Issue 9 Page 92

CLEARING THE MIND

Meditation sounds like a good idea,
a good thing to do.
It might help clear the mind,
relax the spirit,
bring hope where there is none.

But, having never meditated,
I don’t know what to meditate on.
Should I think about the things I’d like to get rid of,
such as wild panic, undefined fear?
Or should I think about the spiritual things
I’d like to add to my life?
Or should I merely count numbers in sequence—
in Fibonacci sequence, always adding—
or sing one note to myself,
a note like “Om” or “I’m”?
Maybe one of those sounds is my mantra.

NEUTRALITY

I used to be very judgmental.
I knew what I liked and what I didn’t like
I knew what was good and what was bad.
I’m probably no less judgmental now,
but in my work—my work as a job—

I need to be unopinionated,
fair, even-handed.
I do see things that I believe are right or wrong,
but I keep my opinions to myself.

THE ANGER/FEAR COMPLEX

My fear leads to my anger—
at whoever it was or whatever it was
that caused my fear.
So my panic is fueled by anger,
or vice versa:
My anger is fueled by my panic,
or I fear that I have too much anger.

The result is I’ll get a stomachache,
a psychosomatic response.
I’ll feel nauseated and won’t be able to walk.
My legs won’t work.

DEAD OR ALIVE

Outside one of our windows,
in a planter on the fire escape,
are the skeletons of wildflowers,
mostly brown-eyed susans,
that I watered through the summer
but that have now frozen in the winter.

I suspect something will sprout
in their place when the weather gets warmer.
Maybe not brown-eyed susans,
maybe plants whose seeds have been blown in.

I may see a plant too big for the pot,
maybe a sunflower,
and I’ll know it came in on the wind.