Thursday, April 25, 2013

layabout



Layabout 
by John Brehm

Do nothing and everything will be done,
that's what Mr. Lao Tzu said, who walked
around talking 2,500 years ago and

now his books practically grow on trees
they're so popular and if he were
alive today beautiful women would 
rush up to him like waves lapping
at the shores of his wisdom.
That's the way it is, I guess: humbling. 
But if I could just unclench my fists,
empty out my eyes, turn my mind into
a prayer flag for the wind to play with, 
we could be brothers, him the older one
who's seen and not done it all and me
still unlearning, both of us slung low 
in our hammocks, our hats tipped
forwards, hands folded neatly,
like bamboo huts, above our hearts.


3 comments:

  1. more with the unlearning! (ha! i just wrote this at your other home.) more with honing galway kinnell's purer ignorance.)))

    but, i don't know that women would throw themselves toward him, or that men might recognize his wisdom. he would most likely be reviled as a lazy schlep. as a society we do not want to scourge ourselves with the fire-truth of inactivity (a different kind of active being) and attention - unfortunately.

    i kiss those tiny dew covered leaves coming toward me pleading...

    xo
    erin

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  2. Love it :) especially - "me, still unlearning." Yes, unlearning the doing. Wonderful "not doing" - just being; being that pure innocence of a child delighting in the discoveries of just being - of opening and closing a door... :) (I love that post too!) I am about to have a "not-doing day" - and the "doing" won't get done! :) but I giggle in my heart because I will do what really needs to be done - the art of just being - Sanctuary...
    (I'm combining comments here from your other post on washed stones :)

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  3. I enjoy reading the above comments, Sister, as much as Brehm's poem. I really love how you pair poem and image here at Small. :)

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