2016 Editor's Choice Award

Editor's Choice Award for our 2016 Poetry Contest goes to Jon Wesick for his poem "Meditation Instruction."

Jon Wesick is the author of the collection Words of Power, Dances of Freedom; he hosts San Diego’s Gelato Poetry Series; and he is an editor of the San Diego Poetry Annual. Jon has published over 300 poems in journals such as the Atlanta Review, Pearl, and Slipstream. He has published almost 100 short stories, and in 2015, “Visitor” was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. His poem “Bread and Circuses” won second place in the 2007 African American Writers and Artists contest. Jon Wesick has a Ph.D. in physics and is a longtime student of Buddhism and the martial arts.

Meditation Instruction
by Jon Wesick

Even if an A-frame of chicken bones

is all that’s left of your last meal

and the executioner will come for you soon,

settle your awareness in the here and now.

Even if the turkey is still raw

ten minutes before the banquet,

Even if you lost the winning lottery ticket

and your future prosperity tumbles with pants in the dryer,

practice the here and now.

Even if your joke about the porn star

brought a grimace to the pastor’s lips,

Even if a fart loud as an air horn

erupted at Toastmasters,

let waves of awareness return you to the here and now.

Even if your neighbor uses your lawn as his dog’s toilet,

Even if that SUV takes two parking spaces,

Even if you obsess over your upcoming scene in Tarantino’s film,

Even if your Nobel Prize acceptance speech is tomorrow,

let your mind be a redwood rooted in the here and now.

Even if a naked Angelina Jolie (or Brad Pitt)

calls you from the bedroom,

Even if a new Lamborghini gleams in the driveway

and the keys are in your pocket,

let your mind be an immovable mountain in the here and now.

Even if you fantasize this immovable mind

will make you an action hero,

Even though this poem is only a metaphor

and such a mind is impossible,

Even though Einstein proved that now does not exist,

your here and now are enough.