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Recorded Reading (1:50): https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/dkmdl7e68jbzfyiotmwpc/Present-Moment-Awareness.mp3?rlkey=7pc45j8msrx5jf1qzqiozd2k6&dl=0

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Present Moment Awareness

Looks ordinary, doesn’t it,
This moment we are standing in?
It doesn’t seem so very much
Happiness may from it win

A place where we have been before
Where errands must be run
Nothing we’d call pleasure
Nothing we’d call fun

Unless we choose to look at it
(Our right is elective)
From a somewhat different
And higher perspective

Full of fascinating folk who go,
Full of stories, passing by
All of which we might not know
Though for a hundred years we try

What if that woman just ahead
In the grocery line
Is lost in lonely misery?
Might a smile, gentle, benign,

Assist her to marshal the strength
To face another day,
The lack of which allow her
To completely fade away?

The next time that you see that baby
Seated in its carriage
The babe’s likely to be preparing
For its marriage

It might look like the same old day
Same old buildings, same old trees
But when you’re old, remembering
Them will bring you to your knees

Tender sentimental sorrow with ~
Reality will rearrange
Inexorably round us
We cannot prevent change

Can’t stop the universal flow
No frozen permanence create ~
Be sure this moment’s blessings know
Before it is too late

*****

Until removal of the stalker/targeter/vandal/arsonist following her allows her to approach any landlord ~ even for a private parking space ~ and to begin once again to create professional connections and to rebuild her life, this poet presently lives homeless and at a fraction of her nation’s poverty level ~ still working seven days a week to contribute to her society, however.

Arts patrons may visit http://www.UgiftABLE.com , using code #72D-31S, or choose to send a personal check to the poet’s ABLE account. It takes about two weeks for the poet to be notified of your patronage.

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