The Ever Maddening Mandala

Robert Ronnow
Ever Maddening Mandala

The Ever Maddening Mandala

Coffee between neighbors
I lie alone in the night

History passionate history
Ignore yr autobiography

Departing from traditions
No mission, no omission

Hot anvil and hot engine
It’s a waste of time to imagine being dead

Care enough to think clearly
It’s an idyll of an early summer evening

Today steam rose from the asphalt
Loneliness is the default position

Caves and red-rock houses
Clear sinuses and arteries

The naming of things goes on
You can run on and on as long as the mind goes on

Shared sacrifice or blame
The deficiencies in our systems of governance

The self
Service to others

Say your one essential thing
Learn the changes, then forget them

Overcome a deepening solitude
Walking and talking is sung praise and gratitude

Cliff rose and wavyleaf oak
The reincarnation of Clifford Brown

Brilliant but rebellious
Meiosis and mitosis

Because I pay the rent on time
Somewhere there are flowers among railroad ties

Go to your daily discipline
Practice for perfect rest

Getting the trajectory right for re-entry
Reducing probabilities to near zero

Starry corridor
Guard the border

Flawed methodology
Calm acceptance, something like gladness

How you feel accounts for nothing at all
How broadly we define community says it all

A comity and a tragedy
Everything rhymes with comedy

F is for fiction
Conflict is inevitable

We’re taking on everyone one at a time
Shower the people you love with love

History portends a periodic bloodletting
Nothing's happening which is something, magic