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Two Temples
by Glenn CurrierIt's Sunday morning
fall football fading.
Great yawning cathedrals
devouring people, cash, and taxes
soon will close their doors
turnstiles ticking hope
will be locked.
Where will people worship
when the annual ritual bloodletting
fades into the record books?
In Arlington two temples
within a mile of each other
feed the faithful
who come astral searching
for something
to fill the void.
At one, people park free
leave their foot gear in the foyer.
At the other,
fans pay up to 75
just to put the gear in park.
On game day
in one temple
the cheering for offence
and shouting for defense
infuse hotdogs and beer
and within earshot
in the other temple
that noise yields a chance
to focus
and practice
peace.
On game day
schizophrenic me
braves the traffic
to sit with Shakyamuni
searching for compassion
having lost
my patience and serenity
Saturday with the Longhorns.
12/05/2010 Author's Note: The Kadampa Meditation Center of Texas is just three blocks from the Cowboy Stadium in Arlington, Texas. After writing this poem I opened the Dallas Morning News and found a magazine insert about the coming Superbowl in Cowboy Stadium and in it was an article beginning with the image shown.
Posted on 12/05/2010
Copyright © 2024 Glenn Currier
| Member Comments on this Poem |
| Posted by Paul Lastovica on 12/05/10 at 05:50 PM may you find inner peace during the off season - perhaps enough to hold for all seasons, all times :) An endless searching. a worthy endeavor. Best to you (and your Longhorns) |
| Posted by Gabriel Ricard on 12/05/10 at 07:25 PM Such a sharp, nicely-done illustration of the two contrasts. |
| Posted by Gregory O'Neill on 12/09/10 at 06:59 PM Signs of the times rarely tell us to "Yield" and so many report "Dead End". Football, which I love, often seems more like a finite emergency happening at a distance than a game while in meditation we identify ourselves with the vast, with the Absolute. Good write. Delighted. Thanks. |
| Posted by Philip F De Pinto on 12/17/10 at 01:53 PM I have long ceased becoming fodder to either cathedral as I cannot afford to enter either house of worship, lest I be consumed by the silence or the throng. Glenn, your insightful ode reminds me that I have seen cathedrals yawning and have kept my distance or turned away, lest like Lot's wife, I turn into a pillar of yawning, as yawning is most definitely catching. These days, I worship in the plain and open air. Three cheers and lots more for your ode which stirs many a fond reminiscence of days in which I was a dummy to tackle in so many ways. |
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