Collapse: Doubters’ Prison?

Oh, botheration!
I’ve hit a snag:
I’m sick of meditation
This Dharma is a drag!

How long this time,
Will this last?
Is it the end?
I wonder,

Or, to be ignored
As just another
Dharma blunder?
Who is stealing my thunder?

Is it me,
Or the weather,
Should I give up,
Or try harder?

Apply more effort,
Is that what it takes?
In this snakes and ladders
It feels all snakes.

Why serpents?
This is no Eden,
I’m merely fighting
For my freedom.

Is that what I’m doing?
Striving for liberation
When did that happen?
I thought I was dreaming.

I wanted to get through the day
Without screaming,
What is this, new scheming?
I’ve lost my way again;
I hope I can recover.

Coil: Stuck on Caught

To rest in the potentiality
Of the moment
Brings happiness,

Or maybe the best way
Is to forget about it,
And when caught
Get reminded.

Then there is only
Getting caught and un-caught;
So, why study that?
Why take an interest?

Does attention not just
Get you caught more?
Or, merely teach you
The folly of getting caught?

Or does such awareness teach you
The foolishness of bothering
About whether
You are caught or not?

Conversely, if you take notice,
Do you see it’s unimportant
And stop?
Or does that increase the stickiness?

Perhaps examining the phenomenon
Only feeds self-obsession and attachment,
As maybe mostly we’re not caught,
And if we are, so what?

Does it matter?—Could this be the point?
(I have the feeling
I’ve done this one before,
Oops, caught again!)

Cohere: Working Meditation

Foot, foot, foot, foot,
Walking meditation;
Taking my break outside tonight,
Staying with the feet.

Why is this guy following me?
Now he sits down on
The steps of the church
At one end of my route;

Switch from path
To sidewalk,
But then so does he,
Puffing on his smelly cigarillo.

Time’s up by now anyway,
Break over,
Back to work,
On the phone again;

It rings,
And I pause for
A mindfulness moment
Before answering.

Another voice
Calling for assistance,
No resistance at my end,
I’m ready to bend.

A successful conversation here,
A timely intervention there,
All’s well
And happy.

I journey home
At the end of the shift,
Beginning to drift,
Writing this brings me back,
And I prepare to hit the sack.