at Snake Doctor Pond

I know there's a life being led in lightness,

out of my reach and discipline.

I keep trying to climb in its words,

and so unbalance us both.

The teacher's example is everywhere open,

like a boat never tied up, no one in it,

that drifts day and night, metallic dragonfly

above the sunken log.

---Coleman Barks, from "A Section of the Oconee near Watkinsville"

Done