As requested by my dear friend Peter, i give you the recited version of yesterday’s poem. It took me a dozen or so takes, not that I’m a perfectionist, but to successfully get through from beginning to end without a hiccup, tongue-twist, mangled word, or brain freeze. And I might add, the quietest place in my world is outside. This bright sunny morning, you will hear that I competed for air time with a field of lusty cicadas. Welcome to my world! I hope you like it.

And Peter, I could not live with myself if I were the reason you were losing sleep! Rest well my friend and thank you for tapping on this old turtle’s shell and inviting me to come out!

…and here is the text in case you’d like to follow along…

what matters

it matters not when life begins 
or ends; it is the in between
the crooked path, the highs, the lows 
as most lives go, pendulums swing
and we obsess in the extremes
but that’s not where the rubber
hits the road, i’m told, steady 
as she goes, the wise have said,
don’t lose your head, don’t sweat
the insignificant, but who’s to say
what matters most at end of day
if truth be told, if truth exists
the rights, the wrongs the 
reasons why we fight and fret 
and lean toward right or left, 
it is the middle, we forget, 
where time is present, 
neither here nor there, 
where god, if god exists, is love,
is everywhere, where grace 
flows freely, despite who, 
what, why, or where you’ve been,
can we just close our eyes, pretend
it matters not the second life 
begins or ends, it is, as it has 
always been, the in between

~kat