Living in the Moment

 It was a lazy July afternoon

all heat and bees buzzing

sipping nectar with their long tongues

from sweet pea and lavender

And all I could do was give myself up to it

pull up a chair and turn my face to the sun,

giver of all life, and absorb that vital Vitamin D

and live for a change in the moment.

But the bees were buzzing a bit too close for equanimity

and I was a bit overdressed for the occasion

and the dog at my feet was panting a bit over zealously

and her water bowl needed refilling

And I was a bit concerned about the UVA and UVB factors

that weren't in the face cream I had applied that morning

and the inevitability of needing cryotherapy

at some indeterminate moment in the future

That I completely missed the chance to live in the moment.

Copyright 2022 Cathy Leonard All rights reserved

Negative Capability

 

Looking at my diary for today's date

I see I did nothing from yesterday's to-do list:

Cancel, or at least defer, imminent Physio appointment

( I was crippled for three days after the last session);

Contact library about that link they sent to my granny phone

incompatible with links of any sort

(It's probably about the Billy Collins' book I ordered

or else my returns are  late again);

and Order copies of same books from the bookshop or Amazon

(I can't keep renewing them....)

Not a long list really

So what did I do yesterday

 apart from avoid it?

I read about Keats and Negative Capability

which he ascribed to Shakespeare 

who was content with:

being in uncertainty, mystery and doubt

without the irritable reaching after fact and reason

And I think, somewhat optimistically, 

that Negative Capability may apply to me too 

except that there might be more a touch 

of Hamlet's indecision and procrastination 

in my daily deferrals.

Copyright 2022 Cathy Leonard All rights reserved

Eternal Love?

 

At the end of Howth pier just beyond the lighthouse

you reach a set of railings, pillar box red against the grey rocks below

and grey sea beyond, and their names Evan loves Lauren

etched on the granite rock, pox marked with bright yellow lichen

and I think of Evan climbing over that high rail placed strategically there

to prevent him from doing just that, from proclaiming his eternal love in this fashion,

and I wonder if Lauren was impressed with his feat?

Or did she see it as a red flag event?

And did she wait for him to climb back over the rail?

Or did she turn on her heel and walk away?

For I see on the other side of the lighthouse, shore side,

his name again engraved, this time minus love and minus Lauren

and I'm beginning to think of Evan the way I think about my dog

leaving his scent on every pole in town.

Copyright 2022 Cathy Leonard All  rights reserved