Practical Mysticism

I have food
through the assistance of myself
and
of my family and occasionally
the system
not this year
the system
and being poor is bad

a situation if not a moral
and
I suppose the anchorites are pleased enough
not
to have however much there was to have
and for love’s
sake as
well as interest
call it professional
passion
to give up everything and so by doctrine
and I think
by
miracle
to keep the world
as the gospel goes the other way
to keep the world first
and
lose the soul

so we surrender
and we
gain
and the mystics teach this by example
and we’re in the blending
somehow of what
to gain and
to let go

c l couch

photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash

the title is itself the title of, by Evelyn Underhill, Practical Mysticism with the subtitle A Little Book for Normal People