Satori
Todd Vanisacker 1969 (Michigan)
The sun rose
and blazed through the window
with an angry intensity,
waking the sleeping man
from a troubled sleep.
He sat up,
squinting from the light,
feeling more like
a man on the brink of exhaustion
than a man waking up.
With a groan, he stood,
and proceeded
to go about his day,
with all of the enthusiasm
of a condemned man
walking to the gallows.
So many problems,
so much stress
pressing down on him.
Somehow, every little thing
that could go wrong
had gone wrong,
all at once.
There seemed to be
no escape,
no relief
he felt caged in.
He had never thought
his life would be like this,
he had had dreams of greatness,
of creativity,
and now,
he sloughed through his days
with no pleasure,
with no purpose,
just with the intention
of getting it over with.
Trapped,
that summed up
how he felt.
And then,
without warning,
a dog ran past him.
That was it,
nothing special,
just a dog,
yet looking back
that was clearly the moment.
Suddenly,
everything made sense.
It was as if a searchlight
was suddenly switched on
in his brain.
Or that bright, angry sunlight
of the morning
had finally burnt away
the cobwebs in his head.
One by one
every aspect of his life
fell into place.
It would work!
No more stress,
no more little things
getting in the way of the big things.
Finally, happiness
in place of depression,
peace in place
of anxiety.
Just like that,
all in a flash
he understood
how life was to be lived,
he was enlightened.
There was a word for this
in the Zen philosophy,
satori.
He whispered this word
to himself,
relishing the flavor of it
in his mouth.
such a small
simple word,
but such a large change
to his life.
Font size:
Submitted by ToddVanisacker on March 28, 2021
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:31 min read
- 9 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | Text too long |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic dimeter |
Characters | 1,545 |
Words | 305 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 84 |
Translation
Find a translation for this poem in other languages:
Select another language:
- - Select -
- 简体中文 (Chinese - Simplified)
- 繁體中文 (Chinese - Traditional)
- Español (Spanish)
- Esperanto (Esperanto)
- 日本語 (Japanese)
- Português (Portuguese)
- Deutsch (German)
- العربية (Arabic)
- Français (French)
- Русский (Russian)
- ಕನ್ನಡ (Kannada)
- 한국어 (Korean)
- עברית (Hebrew)
- Gaeilge (Irish)
- Українська (Ukrainian)
- اردو (Urdu)
- Magyar (Hungarian)
- मानक हिन्दी (Hindi)
- Indonesia (Indonesian)
- Italiano (Italian)
- தமிழ் (Tamil)
- Türkçe (Turkish)
- తెలుగు (Telugu)
- ภาษาไทย (Thai)
- Tiếng Việt (Vietnamese)
- Čeština (Czech)
- Polski (Polish)
- Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian)
- Românește (Romanian)
- Nederlands (Dutch)
- Ελληνικά (Greek)
- Latinum (Latin)
- Svenska (Swedish)
- Dansk (Danish)
- Suomi (Finnish)
- فارسی (Persian)
- ייִדיש (Yiddish)
- հայերեն (Armenian)
- Norsk (Norwegian)
- English (English)
Citation
Use the citation below to add this poem to your bibliography:
Style:MLAChicagoAPA
"Satori" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 13 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/96793/satori>.
Discuss the poem Satori with the community...
Report Comment
We're doing our best to make sure our content is useful, accurate and safe.
If by any chance you spot an inappropriate comment while navigating through our website please use this form to let us know, and we'll take care of it shortly.
Attachment
You need to be logged in to favorite.
Log In