Fallible: When Fast is Slow

Soft boiled eggs
When cracked open for eating
Can make a mess
By running all over

Rushing through breakfast
Because I'm late
But speeding up does not help
In fact, creating this mess to clean up!

Mind you, this egg-yellow run
Happens quite often
and yet I've never known
Just how it's done

Nor do I comprehend why it occurs
Some days
But others
It does not

But today
I suddenly had an idea:
Why not wait a bit?
After cracking each egg, leave the cap on

Because then, I reasoned,
Heat will harden
The soft inside
And when unlidded the contents won't run

Thus, after cracking the shell
With a knife, I waited;
(But not sure what I did while I waited
Because I went to the compute afterwards
And found a virus)

How frequently this happens:
When I'm on the go
That I try to speed up
And my fast is slow

Fall To: Keep Moving

The Fibro-attack returns
And, oh, how my chest burns!
My shoulders ache,
Restlessness, despair and fear overtake

The changing winds
Catch me in their wake
And I am knocked over
By the pounding of the waves

I tried meditation, yoga, walking and resting,
Devotional practice and chanting
But finally, at wits end, switched to
Tylenol 3, obtaining some relief

Still, when I tried to read
The tears surfaced,
From somewhere, unbidden,
As if the story touched a nerve

Not entirely sure
What that's all about
But then found help
In direct pointing to neither here nor not

In this place I found temporary respite
But had to get up and do some work,
which broke the spell somewhat
Nevertheless leading to some new insights

Impermanence makes
All good things precious;
In the flow
We watch and slip away,

Enjoying
The fleeting contact
All the more
And waving goodbye

Fall Through: Ups and Downs

I've never been one
To believe in reincarnation
Yet, it does seem to me as if
My life is but one syllable
In a vast machination

Just as I think I've performed
My last discursive dance
I find I've only elided
Into the next utterance

At some time - I cannot say when
There was Nibbana
And then a return,
A very painful one!

Having stuck on one word
I hung out to dry on the other,
which was where my teacher came in
('Lucky' her!)

Then having found my way back again
And learning the trick
Of passing back and forth,
although somehow not getting it at all,

I now but see another layer
That of a a place
Neither Nibbana nor Samsara;
Neither not Nibbana nor not Samsara

And as for what if anything (or nothing)
Could come next,
I will not ask yet
And would perhaps prefer not to apprehend

But wherever I wind up,
Whether moving on, to consonants or vowels,
If water there be we,
May I be blessed with plenty of towels!

Faith: Moving Forward

After the initial
Burst of happiness
Life resumed
It’s usual flawed course

The laptop crashed
Right after my decision to quit,
Has yet to be revived
And I don’t even know if my data survived!

I misplaced the picture
I’d intended for
A birthday card
And spent all night searching for it.

Several days hence
It reappeared
In a place I’d examined
Many times before!

And so the card
Will probably be late
But at least the post office
Stamped the date.

And now up to my forehead
In mounds of paper
And having swiftly, swiftly
Backed up files on my old computer

I’m so very tired
Plus, I have to make my own energy
As from the computer stimulus
I am now deprived
But that may be the best news to have arrived!