All that thou canst call thine
Own lies in the Word “Today!”²
Love flows from the receptivity
Of Presence: All that we Cherish is
Already Here – sourced in Presence³
The Present lands with so many different
Aspects I cannot establish any Succession –
I Split myself into as many myselves as there
Are Bits of the Present that are dumped on me⁴
The Secret is Here in the Present: if you just pay
Attention to the Present – you can Improve upon it⁵
Consciousness darts back & forth in time like a
Weaver – and occupies, busy with Mysterious
Self-Gatherings, a very large specious Present⁶
No Hand can stop the Sand from Flowing
Fast away – but one that turns the Whole
Glass down and Dreams: ‘tis All Today⁷
It’s Today that counts, not Tomorrow –
And the flow of Time Pauses Briefly⁸
The Present is a Moving Stillness: an
Eternal Stream from which neither
I nor anything else can deviate⁹
Time passes Different Here –
Here it’s Always Year One¹⁰
¹ Katharine Coles, A Dog In Time
² Sarah Doudney, The Water Mill
³ Tara Brach, True Refuge
⁴ Italo Calvino tr. Martin McLaughlin, Shells and Time
⁵ Paulo Coelho tr. Alan R. Clarke, The Alchemist
⁶ Iris Murdoch, The Black Prince
⁷ John Bennett, Her Answer
⁸ Primo Levi tr. Ruth Feldman & Brian Swann, Memorandum Book
⁹ Alan Watts, This Is It
¹⁰ Ursula K. Le Guin, Coming of Age in Karhide