The Koan of Lost Keys

Here's to the gift of letting go.

The Koan of Lost Keys

I slowed behind the tramp
of runners as we climbed
the cobbled hill,
and there you were,
matching my pace.

You seemed older tonight,
hair like ocean surf, but your eyes
burned with the sunset skyline as you spoke
of love, heart rates, and hydration.
Sweet wonder! When you reached out
and hovered your hand above my heart,
how it labrador-leapt to meet you,
and when you placed my palm above your heart,
how shall I describe the indescribable?

To feel your heartbeat
was to hold a bird in flight.
It flowed like water through cupped fingers.
Your heartbeat was the man
who lost his car keys
only to become joy.

image by Matt Layne

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Matt Layne writes…

"The Koan of Lost Keys" came about while I was reading When Things Fall Apart by Pema Chödrön. I had recently gone through a divorce. I had yet to begin my career in libraries, and it felt like every time I gained some small semblance of control in my life, the God-hammer came smashing down to break me into tinier and tinier bits. Every time I felt like things couldn't possibly get any worse, SMASH! SMASH! SMASH! I was acutely aware of my own shortcomings which led to the dissolution of our marriage, but when things fell apart, they REALLY fell apart. It still stands as one of the darkest times in my life. I was desperate; searching for meaning to my existence and how I fit into the order of the universe. 

One night I had a vivid dream of running up the hill toward the statue of Vulcan which overlooks the city of Birmingham. I was out of strength and breath when one of the runners slowed to allow me to catch up.I recognized her immediately as the Beautiful One, a personification of the Holy I had written several poems to years before. She also had the face of Pema Chödrön. When I woke from the dream, I felt a very real gift of calm for the first time in a long time, and while I still too often struggle to run up one hill and then the next, I can, on occasion, remember to lose my keys and become joy. 

Here's to the gift of letting go.

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“The Koan of Lost Keys” appears in Miracle Strip, released August 31, 2022. The music is Ned Mudd’s “Lemon” from the album Time Travel for Dummies.

Miracle Strip, a poetry collection by Matt Layne, is a unique hybrid of the written and spoken word. Each piece of the collection has an end-stop embellishment QR code which, when scanned, transforms the reader into a listener. Layne has recorded each poem, often with the accompaniment of musician and poet, Ned Mudd. The first line of the book invites the reader to “tell me your story, and I will tell you mine,” in the campfire tradition. In Miracle Strip, the reader and poet embark on an experiential journey of memories and the ghosts who haunt us. 

Miracle Strip by Matt Layne is in print! Get your copy today!

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Poet, librarian, raconteur Matt Layne has been poking hornet's nests and looking under rocks for lizards and snakes since he was knee-high to a peanut peg. A founding member of the 1990s improvisational poetry collective, The Kevorkian Skull poets, Layne believes in the radical transformative power found in the intersection of poetry and art, and he wants you to write your truth and share it out loud. A multiple Hackney Award winning writer, he has also been recognized by the National Society of Arts and Letters and been featured in Peek Magazine, Birmingham Arts Journal, Steel Toe Review, B-Metro, and elsewhere. Look for him at your local library.

Ned Mudd resides in Alabama where he engages in interspecies communication, rock collecting, and frequent cloud watching. He is the author of The Adventures of Dink and DVD (a space age comedy). Some of Ned’s best friends are raccoons.

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