Life of the Mind

NIRVANA
 
Imagine one’s mind blown if not one’s skull:
emptied as if bias &  belief, prejudice &
conviction  were blown away and down
will  come cradle, baby and all.
 
Nirvana.
 
Did you have another notion in mind? The
frame of mind pre- requisite to liberal art:
stunned stupid and ready to study?
 
Nirvana.
 
Who’d believe me if I said,   They took and 
split me open from scalp to crotch, and still
I’m alive, and walk around   pleased with the
sun and all the world’s bounty…
 
Don’t the trees hide the wind between their
leaves and speak in whispers? the third
dimension hides itself.”  (Denise Levertov)

 
Habit  Addiction. Obsession  Compulsion
Attention Efficiency  (or Deficiency, depending
on where we draw the line): while inimical to
Time Management  & measurable objectives
are never the  less  prerequisite for making the
world a better  place if not for saving it..
 
Plus: that “damned moral sense”: outrage galore
across the universe no matter our party affiliation: 
determination to explain, interpret,  show reason’s
why, because &  affect, blame, escape goat &
vote..  
 
“He who gives himself entirely to his fellow-men
appears to them useless and selfish; but he who
gives himself partially to them is pronounced a
benefactor and philanthropist.”    (Thoreau)
 
Wallace Stevens regularly knocked out poetry
in his office sitting as vice president of Hartford
Accident and Indemnity Insurance, a suburban
legend in his own time, and so might be considered
benefactor and  poet. 
 
Imagine if he did nothing but poetry.
Or nothing but  life insurance 
A faux dichotomy?

Can  anyone serve two masters?