Meditation Instruction
The friend who phoned and fumed
couldn’t right himself to center so
I said how it might mend him if
he found his larger life, breathed
his longer breath, slipped inside
what was down inside, made his
way to his quiet mind. He said no
that would never work, but called
later in the week and asked how
long I’d done it. Sixteen years,
I said. Do you sit in the lotus
position, he asked, do your fingers
form a circle? No I don’t, I said,
no they don’t. Well, he said,
I checked out this library book
and I hate to rain on your parade
but without the pose, it was all
for nothing. I thought how hard
it had been not to think thoughts
so I’d get to a space of no space.
I smiled at the phone and said,
Oh, Eddie, you are exactly right.
Laurinda Lind lives in the U.S. in New York’s North Country, close to Canada. Some of her poems are in Blue Earth Review, Stand, and Spillway. Her first chapbook, Trials by Water, was released in summer 2024 (Orchard Street Press). She has won four international poetry competitions.
Amethyst Review 