Knowledge and Enlightenment

To attain knowledge
Add things daily
To attain enlightenment wisdom
Remove things every day.

Gathering pieces of coal from mine is knowledge
You need it to keep you warm on cold nights
Or cook meals for your hungry children
It can even be sold to buy things you need
But stumbling on diamond embedded in a coal is enlightenment
You did not look for it nor did anything to deserve it
Other than recognizing it when it came your way
Throwing away your cache of coal to hold it close
Coal becomes inconsequential for
What you have now is much more precious


Diving into deep sea to gather scallop is knowledge
You need to feed your family and pay the rent
But discovering a Lion’s Paw pearl is enlightenment
All you wanted was meat, shucking away shell and viscera
Unprepared to finding a royal purple gem among ravage
Now you care less about the meat going bad
More about keeping your treasure safe
Millions of scallops to be harvested
Only handful of perfect pearls to be found
Choosing to walk away with most precious is wisdom

To attain knowledge
Add things daily
To attain enlightenment wisdom
Remove things every day.

I Am Waiting

This poem is part of- Puppet on a String, an anthology by Destiny to Write Publications. Free copy of ebook can be downloaded by visiting the below link:

  http://poetrybybarrymowles.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/puppet-on-a-string-new1.pdf

Listening to the silence
In the quiet of the night

I am waiting
For you to wake up
You continue sleep walking

How could it be
That you saw my ties
but missed the pearls
Scattered around me
I know you will gather them once you wake up

Sitting in the dead of night
I embroider these pearls
into the design of my tapestry
while I wait for you to wake up

At times waiting hurts more
Than the needle that pricks my finger
And draws out the blood
More pearls than rubies surround me
As I wait for you to wake up