Simple tools are the best.
When I first gazed
upon a labyrinth path
It reminded me, laughingly, of my life.
As each wide arc
Of effort and emotion that
Carried me down some path
Never seemed to reach it’s goal.
Turning back on itself instead
To inscribe another arching roll
Then coming to a halt
in some empty inner space.
Requiring me to retrace
my steps in parallel strokes
Only to be spit out, frustrated and broke
Near the place where I began.
What a perfect joke! I thought
“Its a child’s toy, no more
Like Hopscotch, without keeping score”.
But with a little more information
And some newly focused intention
I made up my mind, and in I went
To walk the labyrinth path..
Without much effect, at first
But from learning and practice
And walking again
I came to believe that this was a tool
That could ground my journey,
All the way to the end.
Think on this.
A thousand,
Plus a thousand,
Plus a thousand,
Plus a thousand years
and more
Humans have created this pattern
On rocks and walls and floors.
In soaring cathedrals,
In musty hidden tombs
In glorious formal gardens
And simple mud-walled rooms
It has been looked on as a door
To capricious gods
A key to hidden truths
Protection from relentless foes
And long odds.
And a symbol of the christian church.
All of those, all of those, all of those,
and more!
Something must be working
In the flowing pattern of curves and lines
That pulls at the core of human kind
Guiding movement, calming the mind.
Some universal archetype
For all life’s journey taken to find
Our inner truth and outer signs
Of hope.
And no, it’s not a devil’s mark!
There is no evil there.
Only a simple form and true
Inviting you to walk in meditation
A frame for contemplation or prayer
Only a symbol
At the very center of the human breast
Remember,
Simple tools are the best.
LIPS Member (Live Poets Society)
Join us at the Carleton Place Community Labyrinth on Saturday May 1st
as we "Walk as One at 1 for World Labyrinth Day"
Inez will open our walk with this poem!