Zen And The Art Of Pool Maintenance

Get some exercise, or die. So says my cardiologist, SWMBO, and my "friends". Okay, they are all trying to save my life. I get it. But, exercise just to exercise has always seemed like wasting precious minutes of the short life we have. However, I am bowing to pressure; but, I will do it my way. I fired the pool guy, and have been maintaining the pool myself. This morning, I brushed the pool, vacuumed the pool, hosed down the deck, and spent an hour and a half "exercising" while doing it. The pool looks great, I got some exercise, and I saved over a hundred dollars. Nice. That reminded me of a poem I wrote after I met SWMBO, which made it into the book. Here it is, for those of you who didn't buy the book. (Shame on you all):

Zen and the Art of Spring Cleaning

As I push the vacuum around the house
and clean the counters
scrub the debris of a week
from the shiny surfaces
and discard
the used up trappings
of my life

I think of you.

Every now and then
I need to adjust the inventory
and remove the extra baggage
from the carousel

Otherwise it will go round and round
forever.

The simplicity of physical labor
allows me to concentrate
on the complexity of my feeling
toward a new woman in my life

In the ordinary running away
I do every day
In the meanderings
and gallops
of my thoroughbred anxiety
I sometimes
stop
and listen
and look.

I get hit by fewer trains that way.

I love the way
you free my mind
to think about
the future.