Poem for Our Return to Regular Life

Today many of us return to our regular lives.  Maybe we're grateful:  maybe we crave the structure of our regular schedules.  Maybe regular life makes it possible for us to keep to an exercise schedule and to eat sensibly.

Or maybe we're returning to a hectic life, full of difficult commutes and hundreds of e-mails every day.

Maybe both things are true.

So, before we get too immersed in regular life, pulled away from the mysticism and the beauty of Advent and Christmas, let's take some time to remember ways that we can be more attentive and present to our lives. 

Let's return to the lessons of the monks.

Here is my poem, "Horarium."  I found it strangely comforting to revisit it.  It seems appropriate for our return to regular life.  It first appeared in Poetry East about a year ago.


Horarium

The monks get their morning

news from the Psalms.  We brew

coffee and scan the TV stations

for news we can use:

diet tips, a weather report,

the quickest way around the traffic jams.

We sit in our coffin

like cars and watch the sun rise

across sluggish traffic.  The monks chant

to each other across the chancel

as the morning light shifts

across the sanctuary.

Chained to our computers,

we undo the work of past days

and create documents to be dismantled

tomorrow.  The monks tend

the chickens and mulch

the seedlings.  We shred

documents while the monks

welcome visitors to a meal.

At night, we click through cable

channels, our glazed eyes focusing on nothing.

The monks light candles

in a darkened chapel and wait

for the final blessing

of the day, a splash

of holy water and a benediction.