In the background of the recording may be heard the drops and splashes of rain around the poet’s roadside tiny home shelter.

*****

Recorded Reading (2:48): https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/f8cxuom5whih2p4zspci9/Tao-Pow.mp3?rlkey=i2vrr5on5p0seaviyzrhcyyjh&st=n5qblyfv&dl=0

*****

Tao Pow

In times our dim confusion of
We scan the heavens up above
And ask advice of those we love
Then to the sacred teachings go
In hope serenity to know
From out doubt’s murky undertow

And if we scramble long enough
Although the going may get tough
We find ourselves out of the rough
And thence onto smoother terrain
Relieved some of our inner pain
And learning how to smile again

When in despair of everything
Did I one day my troubles bring
To consult the Tao de Ching,
‘Twas good that day it I preferred
And to my inner voice deferred
For from it comfort I inferred

“Perfection seems imperfect” be
The message that it had for me —
If you some imperfections see,
Such may not rightly be mine own
Results unable to be known
But motivation may I own

All else in other hands than mine
Fulfilling thus the grand design
Of the unknowable Divine…
“Fullness seems empty,” it went on —
So, we may never count upon
Sweet understanding till we’re gone

Someone backward rememb’ring, then,
Nostalgic’ly recall days when
Our fond advice they’d hear again
As they had heard before,
Wondering, presently, wherefore
They hadn’t paid attention more!..

“Straightness seems crooked,” it assure
This spirit of intensions pure —
Clumsy about them, to be sure,
By none of which aught harm be meant,
Remembering when list’ners bent
The meanings of her good intent…

And, “Foolish truest wisdoms seem”
Came like a blessing from a dream —
For often ones companions deem
Anything unfamiliar be
Examined so suspiciously
Takes sense from sensibility!

So do not be downhearted if
Some at your finest off’rings sniff
Immured in old assumptions stiff
As any inflexible bone —
Hold hard to what you really own,
By God your true intentions known

*****

The poet/editor of this website is physically disabled, and lives at a fraction of her nation’s poverty level.

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