Today I have

Once again

Discovered

What the sages have been trying to tell me

All along:

That Thinking

In the sense of prodding around

To see how I’m feeling about life

In any one moment

Is unwise.

 

Because Thinking

Is nothing but the futile attempt

To stop the flow of time,

To snatch Life out of its happy dance

And trap it,

Possess it.

I seem to believe

That if I could do this

It would keep me

From dying

But obviously

I can’t

And if I could

The great glowing world

Would die with me.

That’s why

Whenever I fall into

Belly-button introspection

Trying to skewer the squirming moment

On the pin of my mind

I always find that I am

Miserable.

 

On the other hand

When I’m just

Living

Acting

Feeling

Doing

(As in writing

Or reading

These words)

There’s no judgment

No attempt

To pin down the moment.

Only Being

With what’s going on.

No rocket science,

Just the Great Good Luck

Of being alive.

– TLR

No Rocket Science
Trudi Lee Richards

Trudi Lee Richards

Trudi Lee Richards, a poetic and musical member of the Universal Human Nation, is the author of On Wings of Intent, a biography of Silo; Soft Brushes with Death, a Jorge Espinet Primer; Confessions of Olivia, a fictional autobiography; and Fish Scribbles. She has also co-authored two books: Experiences on the Threshold and Ambrosia - Poetic Recipes/Recetas poeticas. Exactly two of her poems have been published by anyone other than her less-than-modest self: “The Great 21st Century Poemic" appeared in the April 2021 edition of Global Poemic (globalpoemic.wordpress.com); and "Fairies of the Forest" appeared in the Palo Alto Times "Youth Said It" column in 1957. In the '90s she also wrote for, edited and published an independent San Francisco newspaper, Human Future; and in the '70s she co-founded the San Francisco arts publication La Mamelle, which morphed into Art Com before it died, and whose remnants are now housed in the Stanford Archives. A graduate of Stanford University, she helped raise several humans from infancy, and is now enjoying their friendship. Currently she tends to wander between Oregon and California, enjoying the company of her beloved community of friends and family. She can more or less reliably be found at the west coast Park of Study and Reflection, outside Red Bluff in Northern California, on the third Saturday of every month.