the Buddha head in an antique shop

Tags

2014, 6*, being, Buddha, compassion, doing, doors, eyes, fire, identity, Lewes, life, love, meaning, openness, others, purpose, realisation, roads, samadhi, searching, shop, silence, smile, stillness, thinking, time, walking, wood

the Buddha head in an antique shop stood
large and quiet on a cherry wood corner unit

by the open door
what, a Buddha’s head in an

antique shop thought I and crossed the road
to study the lids cast down detached reserved

but not closed to a smile and more mysteriously
connected beneath my spiky-backed search for

authenticity than my hollow preferences could
ever be

making little whorls of realisation all
about his head – the release of the milliard

anxieties in the myriad of people I have ever
known – topped by a flame on the crown so that

I knew still that there was more work to be done:

                                walking around
                                in life – there is
                                nothing but walk
                                ing about in life
                                no matter how in
                                between or steep
                                or lost no matter
                                the sweaty knees
                                the lucky finds
                                the giving way
                                the loss of time
                                even if I found
                                my way and even
                                if I’d taken diff-
                                erent turns and
                                alleyways there
                                is still only the
                                lift the swing
                                the plant and
                                the roll to the
                                next          step