Poem-A-Day

Monks Walk for Peace

by Patricia Britton

She sat in monasteries in her youth.

Sunk the mind into deep silence and simple things,

A state of Presence.

Breathing in and out,

Eating organic foods, skillfully prepared.

Monks nominated for Nobel Peace Prize,

Walk for Peace, now.

Give Dharma talks before the end of day.

A world craving their ease, 

Their straightforwardness of purpose.

Followers along the roads,

Distracted from all they tend to as unrest,

Find they have hidden hope, some in tears, shaken.

Give flowers as offerings for this remembrance.

Open kindness in the American South.

A line of orange-robed monks

Steadily moving northward to DC,

Infuse the lands in an act of uncomplicated example.

Living prayer.

Today, Venerable Monks Walk for Peace

Watched by millions.

Chant “Peace” in every breath, in and out.

In the whirls of petals

Before the monks' feet,

Their hope, let be.

~

Patricia Britton lives six miles from the Rensselaerville Library on ancestral lands in the township of Westerlo. She writes when the whim strikes her and often posts, online, her photographs of the wild Nature around her. She spent many years in the high desert of New Mexico and still makes a good bowl of red chile. Her beautiful grey cat, Umber, always has the best seat in the house.