ORGANIC

Organic

“Live Free or Die—“
It’s the motto of the state of New Hampshire,
USA.

I’m house sitting here in Keene—
3 cats sleeping,
93 plants growing,
4 trees dancing towards the ceiling…

Am I living freely?
Would I be willing to die if I could not?

I meditate as I take a winter walk
from lower Main to upper Main…
For 22 years I have studied the Teachings,
worked daily to destroy my ego,
but it is a Phoenix
that resurrects to mock me, no matter.

I have bathed in the Sacred Ganga with questionable sadhus,
I’ve jumped in the icy Deschutes, after sweat-lodge cleansings
and I’ve skinny dipped quite alone in the murky pond
behind my mother’s humble house.
In all places I offer prayers to the four directions,
but I am coated with desires, like a swan
drenched in the oil spills of Greed...

How many lifetimes does it take to be truly free?

I pass the entrance to Keene State College
And note the sign:
“Enter to Learn. Go forth to serve.”
This is the whole earth message—
East, West, North, South….
Give up the little me
for the big We.

At Brew Bakers Organic Coffee Shop,
I stop the Inner View,
shut if off like a TV.
I drink a single espresso,
and grow inexplicably happy…
remembering nothing, not needing
to do anything,
or be something.

In the blinking cinema lights
of the movie theater next door,
in the brown, beige, grey
of Metaphysical March
I let go …..