Time moves forward, despite all my desperate attempts to hold onto what is right now. The trees outside my window spring forth with emerald tendrils, the golden acacia unfurls in spires of circular sunlight. Life, in all its extraordinary ordinariness, pushes forth. If I had great patience, I would stand still, and practice living in the moment. I would pause, breathe, and let the whirlwind of life pass over me.

When I feel overwhelmed, I turn towards nature and beautiful language. This exquisite poem is from Poetry (July 2001).

Zen Living

BY DICK ALLEN

Birdsongs that sound like the steady determined tapping

of a shoemaker’s hammer,

or of a sculptor making tiny ball-peen dents in a silver plate,

wake me this morning. Is it possible the world itself can be happy? The calico cat

stretches her long body out across the top of my computer monitor,

yawning, its little primitive head a cave of possibility.

And I’m ready again

to try and see accidents, the over and over patterns

of double-slit experiments a billionfold

repeated before me. If I had great patience,

I could try to count the poplar, birch and oak

leaves in their shifting welter outside my bedroom window

or the almost infinitesimal trails of thought that flash and flash

everywhere, as if decaying particles inside a bubble chamber,

windshield raindrops, lake ripples. However,

instead I go to fry some bacon, crack two eggs

into the cast-iron skillet that’s even older than this house,

and on the calendar (each month another oriental fan

where the climbing solitary is dwarfed . . . or on dark blue oceans

minuscular fishing boats bob beneath gigantic waves)

X out the days, including those I’ve forgotten.

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Jennifer Wolfe

Jennifer Wolfe, a writer-teacher-mom, is dedicated to finding the extraordinary in the ordinary moments of life by thinking deeply, loving fiercely, and teaching audaciously. Jennifer is a Google Certified Educator, Hyperdoc fanatic, and a voracious reader. Read her stories on her blog, mamawolfe, and grab free copies of her teaching and parenting resources.