Two Poems from an Ashram in India

I promised more quotes from one of my favorite books, Eat, Pray, Love.

In the book, the author spends four months in India at an ashram doing yoga and eating vegetarian food and meditating on a previous divorce, and another failed relationship, etc. There are two poems. The first was written after being at the ashram for only a month, the second after almost 4 months.

First

All this talk of nectar and bliss is starting to piss me off.
I don't know about you, my friend,
but my path to God ain't no sweet waft of incense.
It's a cat set loose in a pigeon pen,
and I'm the cat-but also them who yell like hell when they get pinned.

My path to God is a worker's uprising,
won't be peace till they unionize.
Their picket is so fearsome
the National Guard won't go near them.

My path was beaten unconscious before me,
by a small brown man I never got to see,
who chased God through India, shin-deep in mud,
barefoot and famined, malarial blood,
sleeping in doorways, under bridges-a hobo.
(Which is short for "homeward bound," you know)
And he now chases me, saying: "Got it yet, Liz?
What HOMEWARD means? What BOUND really is?"

Second

However.
If they'd let me wear pants made out of the
fresh-mown grass from this place,
I'd do it.

If they'd let me make out
with every single Eucalyptus tree in Ganesh's Grove,
I swear, I'd do it.

I've sweated out dew these days,
worked out the dregs,
rubbed my chin on tree bark,
mistaking it for my master's leg.

I can't get far enough in.

If they'd let me eat the soil of this place
served on a bed of birds' nests,
I'd finish only half my plate,
Then sleep all night on the rest.

I love love LOVE the second poem. Someday I'm going to escape to a place much less civilized for awhile so I can revel in nature.

Eat, Pray, Love--Quote of the Day

Eat, Pray, Love

I just recently read Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert, and it is officially one of the most difficult-to-put-down books I have ever read. I just finished it today, and after reading the last page I had no qualms whatsoever about flipping back to the first page and beginning again. I folded down the corners of so many pages and underlined so many sections... because they applied very accurately to my life presently. All I could think about was sharing the wonder with all of you! Here is one that I'm really enjoying today.

"I walked home to my apartment and soft-boiled a pair of fresh brown eggs for my lunch. I peeled the eggs and arranged them on a plate beside the seven stalks of asparagus... I put some olives on the plate, too, and the four knobs of goat cheese I'd picked up yesterday from the formaggeria down the street, and two slices of pink, oily salmon. For dessert--a lovely peach, which the woman at the market had given to me for free and which was still warm from the Roman sunlight. For the longest time I couldn't even touch this food because it was such a masterpiece of lunch, a true expression of the art of making something out of nothing. Finally, when I had fully absorbed the prettiness of my meal, I went and sat in a patch of sunbeam on my clean wooden floor and ate every bite of it, with my fingers, while reading my daily newspaper article in Italian. Happiness inhabited my every molecule."

Doesn't that sound absolutely exquisite? At this very moment, I tend toward feelings of guilt when I have little moments like that. BUT... I am trying with all my might to smother them! There is no need to feel guilty taking pleasure in simple things. Especially when I LOVE them so much. I would be happy to just have a simple life... I wouldn't need to be famous, or rich, or beautiful if I could just have a life filled with moments such as that.

by the way: this is a book you will need to purchase. i considered checking it out from the library, but I'm so glad I bought it... otherwise marking and dog-earing the pages would yield obviously negative consequences :)

ps. i've been quite busy lately and have participated in several blogworthy events which I have not yet blogged about! I'm going to make a note here so I don't forget to record them. So... these events are: Two nights at dad's (Pike Place and Shrek the Musical), the Puyallup Fair, Cait's wedding (lotion bottle quote).