Tag Archive | students

Why You’re Not Happy

You’re about to leave college. The future although
Is uncertain for so many reasons. Your friends
Feel the same way. You don’t know what you want to do
With your life. You don’t know what the world’s coming to.
You’re not one to be naïve or one who pretends
That the world is without injustice and sorrow.

What makes you itch? What sort of a situation
Is ideal to you? What would you most like to do?
Ask this but leave money out of the equation.
Having done this you may have come up with just one
Thing that really excites the daylights out of you.
It’s most important that what you’re doing is fun.

Many people spend their lives in sheer misery
Doing what they don’t want in order to survive.
They’re not happy. Their dreams are not being fulfilled.
They no longer have the memory of what thrilled
Them from jump. They’re concerned about staying alive.
They’re not actualizing their reason to be.

It’s up to you to change the world that exists now.
We old ones have done quite enough damage and you
Are the hope of the future. Choose to be happy
In whatever you’re doing then the world will see
Better times. ‘Out with the old and in with the new’
Is your motto. The freedom of growth you’ll allow.

About Happiness

Aug7

A professor one evening had a meeting for
Some of his former students to see how they were
Doing out in the real world. He wanted to see
How much they had succeeded at being happy.
Are they all living the life that they would prefer?
All about their lives now he wanted to know more.

They each told him their stories. “I’m not doing well.
I can’t get that promotion. The harder I try
To achieve what I’m after, the more I’m let down.
I get through my days typically with a frown.
Sometimes while I’m at work I could break down and cry.”
Not a single one had a good story to tell.

So the professor said, “You all seem to be stressed.”
He provided them coffee and several cups
To choose from. Some were plain and some were elegant.
What he said to them next was very important.
Knowing that stress has to do with mental hangups,
It was a bit of wisdom he clearly expressed.

“You all picked the nice looking cups leaving behind
The plain looking ones, but the cup gives no value
To the coffee it’s holding. You want the coffee –
Not the cup. If you want to be truly happy
Care about what’s of value. The more that you do
Then the more success and happiness you will find.”

Come Unhinged!

Sep4

The Zen master within you puts you, the student,
Into situations where you would normally
In the course of social relations come unhinged.
You allow yourself to get to close and be singed
By the heat of the moment so that you may see
How your actions affect things. This is its intent.

The nonsensical questions the teacher may ask
Are to keep you stirred up. Impossible demands
And absurd remarks make for a fertile classroom.
When someone asks a question are you to presume
That an answer exists? Your consciousness expands
As you ponder. This is not a difficult task.

Hear the sound of one hand clapping, or stop the sound
Of the distant train whistle. Reach for the ceiling
And touch it without moving. These are to be done
In the maize of the mind where all logic is spun
Into meaning. The process is truth revealing,
And the change in the way you think may be profound.

We are caught up in a certain way of discourse.
Social, production, and survival games are good,
But they’re not the only things that are important.
The contrast you put up with need not disenchant
Or prevent you from living the way that you should.
Come Unhinged! It’s something that your soul can endorse.

Change Your Life

Dec15

Life is many life stages. All go through some change
Natural to their species. The best are recalled
That have been more than thrilling. That feeling sustained
Is the very one wherein all goodness is gained.
Is there something about life that keeps me enthralled?
This question is important and cannot be strange.

Graduated from college, I don’t have a clue
As to what I should do now. If things were such that
I could do what I wanted for maximum pay
A poet or a painter would be how I play
But they can’t earn a living. Should I then scoff at
What my heart wants me doing. What else could I do?

Well, if money is the most important thing, then
I will waste my life doing things that I abhor
For the purpose of living another workday
Which makes my spirit susceptible to decay
And without the volition to seek and explore
I am stuck and made powerless ever again.

Can I forget the money and do what I feel
Is the best thing for me and do it so damned well
That the feeling itself becomes satisfying?
If I do this ultimately it has to bring
On the kind of adventure that will break the spell.
I can then live a life that is truly ideal.

The Magic Realist

A Poet's Path

Tag Archive | students