Annapurna Sunrise
A sunrise isn’t just a sunrise
Each a unique event
The dawning a new circumstance
Unknown since yesterday
Sun glances off the glaciers
Bells on buffaloes provide the song
Your own personal time lapse
Just remember how to breathe
Jagged peaks like ripsaws
Loom over soft curved paddies
Village with rocky pathways
Laid down in olden days
Ridgeline too high for goats
Who would rather look away
Down valleys filled with grasses
Occasionally find a berry
Unaware of their varied fates
Living only for the now, knowing
Can’t control how long you live
Only your present tense
Each day
Lived in anger and greed?
Or fill each
with vast abundance?
Today is not a photograph
Or another dress rehearsal
For a foretold mystic afterlife
In which you are an exalted master
You are given gifts each day
Of beauty, challenge and hope
Hard times bring lessons
Unrequested by conscious self
The glowing dawn brings new noises
Into your tiny universe
Children resist cold washing
While Grandmas fill steel mugs
Buffalo and yaks are elder siblings
Calm, strong and helpful
Giving milk and fuel each day
To people, without expectation
Maybe you’ll bring them fresh hay
Maybe they’ll find some alone
Unimpressed by your shiny toys and colours
Needs kept more elemental
Warmth, food and rest
Content with two as an option
Each house climbs higher
Up the mountain slope
Precarious and sturdy
On each leans a chimney
Releasing pungent smoke
The humans slip outside
Tasks to do, Gods to please
Receive blessings of beauty
Tomorrow, clouds might roll back in
Savour while you are able
Cold water bath for each tiny kid
Strengthen them for future days
Aiding dreams of others
Serve all but not servant to none
Do not mistake diligence with complacency
Lo the free-flying hawks
Wings may appear the tools
The a clean mind does the flying
Simple kindness the underrated virtue
Honesty brings clear respect
Clockwise round the massif
Chanting all the while
Prayer bells go anti-counter-clockwise
Or is it the opposite?
Spin it wrong, good still comes
When done with the right intentions
