Sidewalk Meditation

I walk on these sidewalks

And I feel the sky evaporate beneath my feet

I detach from these feelings of falling into nothingness

While I am feeling myself falling

I walk across the sky

As I feel the boundaries of non-attachment

I detach from these feelings of non-attachment

Like a bird who is free from the limitations of feathers

I soar across the Universe

While I feel myself being released from time and space

I detach from these feelings about this Universe as home

Like a hobo whose only home is being on the road

I write poems about people's need for sidewalks

Like Han Shan's jokes about wasp's wings

Freedom is like a childhood rhyme about sidewalks

Step on a crack and break your back but don't fall through

I fell through a crack in the sidewalk

And almost broke my back

The pain of enduring the journey on a common thoroughfare

Never exceeded the bliss of knowingness in spite of feelings

I walk on these sidewalks

And over on the grass where dandelions grow

The illusion of freedom is not a feeling

But I feel it anyway

A-ho!

Oliver Loveday © September 9, 2014

“Astral Sidewalk”

Pencil, conté crayon, charcoal, pastel, oil pastel, watercolor and ink

12 x 9 inches | 30.5 x 22.9 cm | 50 lb acid free Canson

November 8, 2013

For more information about Oliver Loveday's work visit Loveday Studio.