DHARMA: COLLECTIVE POETRY ROUND 16

On Wednesdays mornings, I post a photograph on my Rasjacobson Art Facebook Page and ask people to add a short line of poetry in the comments from which I attempt to cobble together a cohesive piece of writing.

For nearly six months, I have been dealing with a spine injury at L4 which has come with unrelenting back/hip & groin pain as well as sciatica. As usual, I have used what’s going on in my life along with the accompanying photograph as inspiration for today’s poem, which represents the combined efforts of seven people.

Many thanks to everyone who participated.

• • •

DHARMA

Twisted at the root
Lopsided & inflamed
Clearly, I didn’t take the warning
Seriously enough.
Step on a crack
Break your mother’s
Back bone, backbone
Broken in two
Blood & tendon & cartilage, too
Spine is our existence;
this much is true.
When I was young
I stepped on all the cracks
‘Surely, you jest,’ I thought
‘I am my own fortress’
And I believed it, too, but Karma
is a moss-covered goddess
Sitting half-lotus
with arms crossed
over her chest.
Deep is the hand of Attachment
Life after life
We pay the debt
With bulging discs
& crushed ganglion nerves.
In days of old
Before the gold
Weighty & solid, our strife
With judgment in her eyes
& despite the pain,
we must press on, growing
more balanced & wise.
If it pleases you
O Great One, untether
this crushed pelvis —in this life
And bless the hands
& also, the surgeon’s knife.