Observance & Reflection... Poem by John Tansey

Observance & Reflection...




The months pass, unnoticed,
like days of the week
and the years
like Seasons...
There is only so much we can retain.
Only so much remains in this narrow, thin wedge
of our consciousness
it recalls only so far back
and, even, less so forward…

We retain so little of the vast pool
of our lives.
Moments come and go;
But, mostly, it is the tragedies we remember!
The culprit is our short-term memory,
primed for survival,
that discards what is not vital to survive the day.
But I do remember…

In a simple gesture of compassion,
feeding my son's two goldfish;
How dependent they were upon our kindness,
our magnanimity toward lesser things.
The whole of Zen can be summed up
by this one simple action;

This expression of empathy.
It is soothing, to the soul, to know
that, although, we, too soon, forget;
Humanity, itself, in its collective unconscious
will remember to shake hands with every soul we pass...

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John Tansey

John Tansey

Bronx, New York
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