Sometimes keeping going is the only thing to do.
Just put one foot in front of the other
Even when all you want to do is
STOP
And jet off, uncoiling this mortal coil, snapping the cord
That holds you here on this
Terrestrial ball
Especially when you’re not having
Much of a ball.
Sometimes I have felt myself leaving
When I look up
At the stars or sun and moon.
After all, I have been there before
Looking out over the backside
Of the moon at Orion.
It’s nice up there.
Still something keeps telling me “No, not yet—
There is much left to do and have
And let go of,
So it will be awhile.
But when I learn to make each day
One long song of Praise,
When doing what I don’t like to do is
Sacred
Even if it’s nothing but lying flat on my back
Staring at that ceiling in that nursing home
Making a complete Heaven of boredom
Finding God in smaller
And smaller things
Till this body becomes translucent with age
And evaporates into
Living through my death and death
And deaths after death.
Besides. The more of me that dies
The clearer my sight becomes
And beauties I never saw before I see now,
Like the soft-shelled turtle a foot wide
That lives in the ditch,
Or the coyote crossing the road at dusk,
That sandy haired trickster,
Moving like Baryshnikov,
Or the colors in the clouds.
When I could leave, I wasn’t grounded
But neither was I finished being made
And now I know I’ll never be finished
So, “No,” I say to myself
When I’m really down and out and
I want to leave.
“Not yet.”
Let’s just see what’s left,
What’s left waiting to be born
Out of this piece of death
This peace of death
Till the last breath whispers “Now,”
And I am ready to go
Birthed into death
And gone home to my love.
That must be stardust on that leaf!
What a beautiful photo! This reminds me of childhood, and reaching for the stars.
THAT’s what i’m talkin’ `bout – thank you for publishing a picture worth a thousand words.
Keeping On
Sometimes keeping going is the only thing to do.
Just put one foot in front of the other
Even when all you want to do is
STOP
And jet off, uncoiling this mortal coil, snapping the cord
That holds you here on this
Terrestrial ball
Especially when you’re not having
Much of a ball.
Sometimes I have felt myself leaving
When I look up
At the stars or sun and moon.
After all, I have been there before
Looking out over the backside
Of the moon at Orion.
It’s nice up there.
Still something keeps telling me “No, not yet—
There is much left to do and have
And let go of,
So it will be awhile.
But when I learn to make each day
One long song of Praise,
When doing what I don’t like to do is
Sacred
Even if it’s nothing but lying flat on my back
Staring at that ceiling in that nursing home
Making a complete Heaven of boredom
Finding God in smaller
And smaller things
Till this body becomes translucent with age
And evaporates into
Living through my death and death
And deaths after death.
Besides. The more of me that dies
The clearer my sight becomes
And beauties I never saw before I see now,
Like the soft-shelled turtle a foot wide
That lives in the ditch,
Or the coyote crossing the road at dusk,
That sandy haired trickster,
Moving like Baryshnikov,
Or the colors in the clouds.
When I could leave, I wasn’t grounded
But neither was I finished being made
And now I know I’ll never be finished
So, “No,” I say to myself
When I’m really down and out and
I want to leave.
“Not yet.”
Let’s just see what’s left,
What’s left waiting to be born
Out of this piece of death
This peace of death
Till the last breath whispers “Now,”
And I am ready to go
Birthed into death
And gone home to my love.
That must be stardust on that leaf!
What a beautiful photo! This reminds me of childhood, and reaching for the stars.
THAT’s what i’m talkin’ `bout – thank you for publishing a picture worth a thousand words.