POEM FOR OUR TIME

A NOVICE BUDDHIST IN MYANMAR*

This lovely poem, passed on to me by my Spanish teacher, is from the Purepecha people of Michoaca’n, Mexico. It was written in the 1500s but strikes me as relevant today, in this unexpected situation in which we find ourselves, trying to figure out how we want to live.

In life you neither win nor lose, 
nor does it fail 
is not successful. 
In life you learn, 
it grows, 
is discovered; 
is written, 
is deleted and 
is rewritten again; 
is spun, 
frays and 
is spun again. 
The day I understood 
that the only thing I’m going to take 
is what I live, I started to
Live what I want to take. 

STAY WELL

*Photo taken by me, October 2016.

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About Alexis

Alexis Rankin Popik, author of Kiss Me Over the Garden Gate, is an award-winning short story writer whose work has appeared in The Berkshire Review and Potpourri Magazine. She has penned numerous articles about local history that have been published in Connecticut Explored and the University of Connecticut School of Law and The Hartford Seminary publications. A former union organizer, Popik traveled the country educating shipyard workers about health and safety and founded a labor-management health plan before turning to writing fiction full-time. She lives with her husband in New England.
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