Day 11

December 5th ~ Day 11 of the 16 Days of Activism

LOTUS
By Christine Dutton

We will glean from the lotus,

lessons on life in the moment,

delight entwined with the raw

Become the lotus, subversive,

a swampy stillness submitting

Tathatā, our source of being

Swiftly gathering strength,

Soundlessly settling in places,

misery abates in dreamscapes

Awakening with little ego,

and with sweeping vision,

you see, need not rise into lotus tree.

Christine Gay Dutton is originally from Rochester, NY and spent her early childhood in the deep south in Florida, Georgia, and Alabama. She is a first generation college graduate with a Bachelors from Roberts Wesleyan. She now resides with her wife in Northampton, Massachusetts, the home of Smith College. She began writing poetry in 1999 and her work has been published with Kota Press, Aileron, Deep Cleveland, Poems for Peace, Survival & Beyond, and Identity Theory. She has participated in and led a variety of workshops in the spirit of the methods of Amherst Writers & Artists. She currently is a member of a BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ community of writers in Holyoke, Massachusetts. When not writing, you might find her running along the Connecticut River, practicing yoga at local farms or greeting every dog she happens upon.