Meditation

Industrious, Chiang Saen, Tailand, November 2005, Pentax Optio 555, Exposure 1/250 sec @ f4.5, ISO 64, no flash © Steven Crisp [Click on the photo to enlarge]

Meditation - a poem inspired by Thoreau

by Amy Belding Brown

For starters,
lie face down in the grass
and watch the industry
of ants
as they hunt and gather
endlessly.
They are relentless
in their pursuit
of affluence
and will attach themselves
to wreckage
twice their size;
they'll spend their whole afternoon
struggling to bring it
home to their
dark tunnels.

Then think --
does this remind you
of anyone
you know?

Next,
turn over
and face the empty sky.
Let your eyes rest
in that high blue field.
Notice the thousand variations
in that color
and how one sky
can hold them all.
Imagine yourself weightless,
falling upwards
drifting with the birds.

Then think --
does this remind you
of who you want
to be?
Cloud Ripples, Amherst, NH, September 2007, Canon PowerShot SD870 IS, Exposure 1/320 sec @ f16.0, ISO 80, no flash © Steven Crisp [Click on the photo to enlarge]