The Mistake

Snow casts a veil of gauze over woodlands
flakes so fine
almost unseen

Cold penetrates bones.
Hot tea cools quickly.
Trembling, ice in veins
—salt tears flood.

Pain and sorrow
assume home in bone—
marrow, too.

The monastery bell rings

—Breathing in,
body speech mind
perfect oneness
send this heart along
with the sound of the bell

—Breathing out,
may all hearers awaken
to forgetfulness
transcend the path of
pain, sorrow, and death

Ah—yet, what is
reality
delusion
belief

To whom do we hand pain
delusion shatters
reality stands—
naked before us

Is it contrite to bow
to accept
Or foolish
rejecting all beliefs

Following devoted years
did we locate the Island within
where answers live
where acceptance extends its hand

who knows this truth

Kindness, a grain of sand,
lost
in noise and endless clutter
of reality
of our now

The world sleeps under the veil—
the snowy gauze of dreams

One day we turned from freedom
handed it to madness

now reality
a mecca for some
hell for others

flattery before modesty
avarice before humility
chose this

and this is what we forgot to remember
in the veil of snow dreams

this now is not forever
this is all I know

Photograph (Remastered): ‘The Mistake, Forgiven’
Copyright: 2022/2026
Artist: Lee Anne Morgan