Instructions for Shining

Sit still in any pose with a mind

for your body’s preferences and needs.

Notice where gravity presses against you.

Disappear just above it.

Find open silence holding the hum

of the electric heater,

the oven fan cooling after biscuits.

Silence doesn’t fight noise.

It is a mother with the world

squirming on its lap.

Feel your chest soften—

butter melting, sun breaking open

above the peak, a crumb at a time

before whole radiance.

How long can you shine on everything,

everything, before you shift

to pick up the sock, the pen?

late Februrary 2026