On Meditating, Sort Of

Meditation, so I've heard, is best accomplished

if you entertain a certain strict posture.

Frankly, I prefer just to lounge under a tree.

So why should I think I could ever be successful?

Some days I fall asleep, or land in that

even better place - half-asleep - where the  world,

spring, summer, autumn, winter - 

flies through my mind in its

hard ascent and its uncompromising descent.

So I just lie like that, while distance and time

reveal their true attitudes:   they never

heard of me, and never will, or ever need to.

Of course I wake up finally

thinking, how wonderful to be who I am,

made out of earth and water,

my own thoughts, my own fingerprints - 

all that glorious,  temporary stuff.

Mary Oliver
Photo:  Peter Bowers