So you say you’re tired
and not much interested in
struggling with the imponderable anymore,
ideas like what does it all mean anyhow?
 
You wonder: where can I find the peace
my life is missing; in which place or way or time
doing what activity with whom for which reason?
The questions become manacles.
 
So you decide to put one foot in front
of the other (sort of like you’ve always done)
and just live your life, every instant, breathing
out and breathing in, doing what comes to hand.
 
A moment will arrive while you’re walking,
cooking, showering, maybe falling asleep
after a busy day without questions when
your mind becomes the pond on a calm afternoon
 
and the aching in your chest takes off like the
squadrons of wild geese in formation in the fall
when all natural things know exactly the right
moves for that particular instant in time.
 
Perhaps it is the purple hour approaching dusk
and the evergreens slide into silhouette
while the edges of the hills gently soften
into the sky and you think, “So, I see...”

 
 From Movie Life (Finishing Line Press, 2011).
Used here with permission.