Author Archives: Steve Mays
The End of the World
But here in the calm latitudes of this room
I am thinking that the end could be less operatic.
Maybe a black tarpaulin, a kind of boat cover,
could be lowered over the universe one night.
A hand could enter the picture and crumple the cosmos
into a ball of paper and hook it into a waste basket.
A gigantic door might close. A horrible bell could ring.
We could have fire, ice, bang, and whimper all at once.
— Excerpt from one of the poems from The Art of Drowning
Hunkered Down
UPDATE: This is definitely a work in progress. My uke guru is suggested some changes. Thinking it might be fun to add one new verse a week for as long as COVID-19 hangs around. We’re talking epic. (Put this on YouTube for anyone having trouble streaming here.)
UPDATE: I’m going to record this again and change “Chinese Virus” to “Donald Trump’s Virus”
We are all connected
We’re All Monastics Now
“In this global pandemic, we’re in an era of isolation, retreat. We’re also in an era of heightened uncertainty. This can be a terrible thing, and drive us to loneliness and distraction … or it can be a time of practice, reflection, and deepening.”