Mantra
We walk in dark before the dawn
solemnly, silent, moving slowly.
The soft voice of the Buddhist nun
echoing like ripples on a lake.
Each of us calling to mind the breath
of being, breathing in and out
joining the land, the rocks, the trees
recognizing we are all the same and unique.
Thoughts are slow, sluggish from sleep
they don't dance and interfere, not yet.
We repeat, should they arise, the phrase
we've learned to quiet them:
“Breathing in and breathing out”.
But for me today, my mind repeats
The signs on the cottage doors:
“Keep doors shut because of bears.”
“Keep doors shut because of bears.”
“Keep doors shut because of bears.”
(from Retreat and After: A Journal of Poetry On Retreat with Thich Nhat Hanh in Rocky Mountain National Park, to be published by Green Fuse Press 2014)
