Stella's Zen

I have been meditating on the picture of Stella and wrote a poem that I will take to my poetry class today.  I'll be interested in the reaction -- which may very likely be no reaction because most people write less wonderingly, more descriptively about nature and every day life.

            Stella’s Zen

Hours, days, months, years

students of Zen practice to learn

the secret of emptying the mind

of thoughts, attaining pure

perception.

At eighteen months Stella

has pure perception:

warm sand, cool breeze, bare feet.

 Children are not mind-less

even with few words.

Is that Zen’s mind – full – ness?

How does an adult live

with a mind full of pure

perception? Surely our

thought-full minds

have other tasks

if we are to live

meaning-fully.