<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';" class="">Oops. Autocorrect got me again: Today’s poem was written by <u class="">Jennifer</u> Wellwood, not <u class="">Joyce</u> Wellwood. My apologies to you, to Jennifer and to Joyce (whoever she may be.)</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';" class=""><span style="font-family: Helvetica;" class="">The Dakini Speaks</span><br style="font-family: Helvetica;" class=""><br style="font-family: Helvetica;" class=""><span style="font-family: Helvetica;" class="">My friends, let's grow up.</span><br style="font-family: Helvetica;" class=""><span style="font-family: Helvetica;" class="">Let's stop pretending we don't know the deal here.</span><br style="font-family: Helvetica;" class=""><span style="font-family: Helvetica;" class="">Or if we truly haven't noticed, let's wake up and notice.</span><br style="font-family: Helvetica;" class=""><span style="font-family: Helvetica;" class="">Look: Everything that can be lost, will be lost.</span><br style="font-family: Helvetica;" class=""><span style="font-family: Helvetica;" class="">It's simple - how could we have missed it for so long?</span><br style="font-family: Helvetica;" class=""><span style="font-family: Helvetica;" class="">Let's grieve our losses fully, like human ripe beings.</span><br style="font-family: Helvetica;" class=""><span style="font-family: Helvetica;" class="">But please, let's not be so shocked by them. </span><br style="font-family: Helvetica;" class=""><span style="font-family: Helvetica;" class="">Let's not act so betrayed,</span><br style="font-family: Helvetica;" class=""><span style="font-family: Helvetica;" class="">As though life had broken her secret promise to us.</span><br style="font-family: Helvetica;" class=""><br style="font-family: Helvetica;" class=""><span style="font-family: Helvetica;" class="">Impermanence is life's only promise to us,</span><br style="font-family: Helvetica;" class=""><span style="font-family: Helvetica;" class="">And she keeps it with ruthless impeccability.</span><br style="font-family: Helvetica;" class=""><br style="font-family: Helvetica;" class=""><span style="font-family: Helvetica;" class="">To a child, she seems cruel, but she is only wild,</span><br style="font-family: Helvetica;" class=""><span style="font-family: Helvetica;" class="">And her compassion exquisitely precise.</span><br style="font-family: Helvetica;" class=""><span style="font-family: Helvetica;" class="">Brilliantly penetrating, luminous with truth,</span><br style="font-family: Helvetica;" class=""><span style="font-family: Helvetica;" class="">She strips away the unreal to show us the real.</span><br style="font-family: Helvetica;" class=""><span style="font-family: Helvetica;" class="">This is the true ride - let's give ourselves to it!</span><br style="font-family: Helvetica;" class=""><span style="font-family: Helvetica;" class="">Let's stop making deals for a safe passage -</span><br style="font-family: Helvetica;" class=""><span style="font-family: Helvetica;" class="">There isn't one anyway, and the cost is too high.</span><br style="font-family: Helvetica;" class=""><span style="font-family: Helvetica;" class="">We are not children anymore.</span><br style="font-family: Helvetica;" class=""><br style="font-family: Helvetica;" class=""><span style="font-family: Helvetica;" class="">The true human adult gives everything for what cannot be lost. </span><br style="font-family: Helvetica;" class=""><span style="font-family: Helvetica;" class="">Let's dance the wild dance of no hope.</span><br style="font-family: Helvetica;" class=""><br style="font-family: Helvetica;" class=""><span style="font-family: Helvetica;" class="">- Joyce Wellwood</span></div></body></html>