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Lasting Karma

What’s the key to living life that matters?
How do we spend this precious time on earth?
Listen to the lessons of our fathers
—they illustrate the path from birth to death.
So fleeting is the beauty of our bodies
which amble down a trail from dust to dust,
followed by expressions of the mind we
immortalize for scholars to discuss.
At deeper levels hides our energy
found in vital functions like the breath,
revealed in heroism when we bravely
renounce our precious lives to save the rest.
Beneath awareness lies eternal bliss
—that soft, undying feeling that persists.

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Thomas Beckman is a physician in Rochester, Minnesota. His poems are published or forthcoming in Annals of Internal Medicine, Gray’s Sporting Journal, Midwest Zen, and Plexus Literary Review.

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4 Responses

  1. Paul A. Freeman

    A very Jedi piece, opening with questions philosophising on life and giving both a mystical and scientific response to those questions.

    I particularly liked the lines: ‘So fleeting is the beauty of our bodies / which amble down a trail from dust to dust’.

    Thanks for the read, Thomas, you’ve got me thinking.

    Reply
    • Thomas

      Paul, thank you for your insights. Saying this poem has a “Jedi vibe” is high praise!

      Reply
  2. M.D. Skeen

    The final couplet of this contemplative sonnet is very powerful and does a great job weaving the threads together in a kind of final conclusion:

    Beneath awareness lies eternal bliss
    —that soft, undying feeling that persists.

    The poem offers up several contrasting ideas, birth/death, body/mind, sacrifice/reward which suggest the answer to the ultimate human question posed in the first lines. Nicely composed.

    Reply
    • Thomas

      M.D., thank you for your reflections. I was attempting to incorporate the eastern concept that human experience is comprised of layers (so-called, koshas) ranging from the physical body to mind, energy, intentions, and the bliss-body. I appreciate your comment about the final couplet!

      Reply

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