ZEN TODAY

I  release you from all your obligations

HENS

Coming round the double bend

From Holme

Just where the odd pissed driver came off the road

And where sad flowers mark a young man’s end,

Too keen on the throttle,

There is a gaggle of high heeled girls,

One in a veil

And the others in matching tee shirts,

Made up to the nines

Waiting there for transport,

With hopes of love myths coming true,

Running maybe too fast for life’s corners,

And cows looking at them over a hedge
Through a tangle of wild flowers.

CAN'T PAY WON'T PAY

ME:  I've been referred to you about our unpaid invoice for cancellation charges.

PROCUREMENT MANAGER: Yes. It's outrageous.

ME: It isn't outrageous at all. I've had seven consultants all on standby to deliver your event and you've cancelled it within the period for which there are cancellation charges. Our proposal is quite clear on this.

PROCUREMENT MANAGER: It's an outrageous amount of money and we are getting no value from it.

ME: We stand ready to deliver the event.

PROCUREMENT MANAGER: That's irrelevant. We won't be doing the event and we won't be paying this invoice either.

ME: It's unfortunate then that I shall have to brief our lawyers.

PROCUREMENT MANAGER: ....................................................

ME: Before we end this call, can I ask you something?

PROCUREMENT MANAGER: What?

ME: Do you have a family?

PROCUREMENT MANAGER: A wife and two daughters, though I fail to see the relevance to our discussion.

ME: Here's the relevance. When you go home to your wife and two daughters this evening, I wonder if you will feel proud of this discussion?

PROCUREMENT MANAGER: No comment.

ME: Then I think you know what to do. (PUTS PHONE DOWN).

Denoument - a few days later, a cheque arrives.

ZEN TODAY

Deceit and fear
Or truth and freedom?

SWIM

If you feel your soul is drowning
Swim on
To the imagined shore
And the tide will carry,
As it takes all things truly desired,
Purely desired.

And it cannot be turned.

But if you will not dream
Of the paradisaical haven,
Bring it to mind now,
Dream it now,
Live it now,
Then you cannot be saved,
Though you swim on for ever
Against the soul's own tide.

ZEN TODAY

Tantrums

Or tantra?

ZEN TODAY

Are there many measures of success?

Or only happiness?

DOLPHINS

Let dolphins be happiness.

They’ll do.

We think they’re smiling

But are they

Ecstasy,

Come upon by chance,

Fuelled by curiosity,

Briefly seen by humans,

Beyond conscious summons?

The same fixed grins

Are gone again

In a moment.

 

 

KEEP TURNING LEFT

WREN

Is it possible to love a wren?

Must love own its object?
Or seek to own it?
For the wren takes
‘What is hidden is more alluring’
To the n-th degree.
Glimpse here,
Blur there.
Then gone, but not forgotten.
Is it enough
For love to love her wild flight,
Wishing nothing but good
To one going, going, gone,
Asking not even acknowledgment
Of the looks of love
She is receiving?

SPARROW

Coming from the dead wood

Where snowdrops issue white
Invitations to a new season
I see the red kite,
Huge and magnificent –
A celebrity, launching.

 

 Later, at home,

A sparrow calls
Beyond the kitchen window.
So what? No one sees you sparrows;
No fans, no twitchers come.
However you aspired,
You’ve grown up one of millions.

 

 I boil a kettle, look again,

And note you’re not half bad.
Surviving, eh?
Well, aren’t we all?
You may be going cheap,
But you wear brown
Beautifully.

ZEN TODAY

No more queues?