Over cliffs and beaches, bogs and fields
running hard-on-self until the body yields
revealing boundlessness - lying deep and quiet within.
Here a one-ness smile for all creation
sustaining long-endurance hearts,
and togetherness that cannot know its unrelated parts.
~
Over many hurdles that confront the runner's world
the spirit battles on, is gradually unfurled
and, as it shines across the furrowed scene,
a flowing chi re-fuels the runner's coastal dream.
The tension of the anxious quest
subsides from brow and throbbing breast.
~
Deeper into inner space the mind explores
launched by a thousand single steps, confined by Nature's ancient laws,
the grizzly runner strides with grace - to know for sure
that he, immortally, shall find the perfect pace for ever-more
- beyond the dualistic frame of turmoil-mind
a lasting peace - surpassing understanding and pain of every kind.
~
The outer athlete cracks the whip
the inner runner weaves the pattern of a death-defying trip
and when the finish banner comes in sight
many friends discover common joy-fullness and aprez-race delight.
Relief and pain surge and mingle with exhausted pride
survivors of the shingle, their ravaged minds at last untied.
~
Their inner shining glows abroad
leaving far behind all vestiges of ego-fraud.
The body may be crushed and bruised, but destiny is not refused
the runner and his* constant friend - the ever-loving muse,
speak thrustingly of evolutionary soul and never-daunted verve,
thus succeed by unimagined effort, apocalyptic humour and a daring nerve.
~
The ardent muse : the shadow voice of inspiration
driving ever OMwards through all wonder-fields of hazy perspiration,
running with you - side by side and hand in hand
she is the light by which the world is known - in every tiny grain of sand.
With her elemental guidance sought and found, known and trusted,
this grizzly running odyssy has, once more, been well and truly busted.
* "his" and "her" are interchangeable here.
The Dungbeetle, Ancient and Unlimited.