Cube 1: Front, back, top, bottom, left, right

Jigsaw-puzzle on the table
Macaroni cheese for dinner
Coffee in the World Peace Cafe
Guided meditation in the Bow Room

Photographs in the walled garden
Trip out to Millington village
Ploughed fields; partridges, or were they pheasants
Treetops and steam topped power stations

Macaroni cheese for dinner
Across the road to Kilnwick Percy Spa
Trip out to Millington village
Single bedded bedroom, bathroom shared with six

Guided meditation in the Bow Room
Chanted prayers play on compact disks
Treetops and steam topped power stations
Buddhism becoming Meditationism

Jigsaw puzzle on the table
Across the road to Kilnwick Percy Spa
Photographs in the walled garden
Chanted prayers play on compact disks

Coffee in the World Peace Cafe
Single bedded bedroom, bathroom shared with six
Ploughed fields; partridges, or were they pheasants
Buddhism becoming Meditationism

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Meditation

If I had ever been to Tibet
I would be in Tibet right now
If I ever sat by the Japanese monk
I would sit by the Japanese monk right now
If I had ever been with the Buddha
I would be with the Buddha right now
If I ever reached enlightenment
I would be in enlightenment right now

Instead I am with the Dutch artist Volbeda
In his studio by the beach in Uist
Instead I am with Brother Daniel
At Vespers in Buckfast Abbey
Instead I am in the public-house in Dublin
With the guy who was good for society
Instead I am with my darling one
On a beautiful birthday vacation

If I, instead
Just bathed in the meditation
Listened to the Om
Chanted it, as my silent mantra
Waited, mindful
That the bells would ring
If I did all of that
Would I have been anywhere less at all

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I Did It Because

This is the role I play
And I cannot remake it
Those are the words I say
And I do not, cannot, fake it

Even with the cake
Left out in the rain
I have to move on
I must forsake it

The presence is no longer
There to give me pain
There is a light, a light
And I know that I can make it

No more the sad romance
Waiting to dictate it
No more nostalgic thoughts
No more to placate it

But don’t you forget
Those days running on the sand
Don’t you go forget
Rejoice, remember, o yes, how grand

To skip, and to laugh
And to make love upon this land
To skip, to laugh, and to dance
To make love upon this land

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You Did It Because

I too stole pears
As you say Augustine did
I too was a thief after dark
In the western tradition

That I say this gives me pleasure
For the memories are the truth
They are the power and the glory
To make me as I am, from my youth

With means to fill the whole page
With other ignominious deeds
Also, to mention the monastics
Here, by the river, here, beside the reeds

I too stole life
Has many more had before me
I too was a thief in the park
In the northern tradition

That I say this gives me witness
For the memories are the truth
They are the hope in my truth
To make me, make me as I already am

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First One Here, Only One Here

There is a stillness
A peace, a quiet, a calm
A future to invest in

An opportunity
Not to take the world by storm
But, but to peacefully be there

Where there is light
Where there is shadow
Where last night is now gone

Where there are bare branches
Where there is rooftop moss
Where none of that displeases

There was a morning letter
Or rather morning words written
Written, what could be better

Than to celebrate the page
Age not being such a bad thing
With a wholeness to the ring

Sing then; there is a stillness
A peace, a quiet, a calm
So bring on the future to invest in

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