The Folding Chairs Meditation: Prompts for a Season on the Skids

By Geoff Peterson

Dropped Off

in a desert bardo after a rigorous affair with his beloved has crashed, a man scrambles to collect the parts. He even votes in a national election to appear normal, and that launches a downward spiral into displacement and suspicion.

fear of censurefear of rebuff
hed jotted on an index card
under the womans bed.

The Folding Chairs Meditation is a portrait of a reasonably sane person who crosses party lines to vote for president. The next day his mistress ab aeterna cancels their engagement on grounds of alienation of affection. Here he deviates from his self-told story and starts over from the ground up.

What follows is a series of meditations conducted alone and in the company of witches who arrive in time to re-set the timer on the mans life and launch him on a new course.

Petersons latest delves into the personal side of the latest national election in which issues and attitudes divided the U.S. to a degree perhaps unmatched but in the dark recesses of the psyche.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Mar 24, 2017
• ISBN: 9781524685546

Geoff Peterson

Born just after World War II, Peterson inherited his mother's nervous system and went on to memorize and perform poetry in a lyric vein for family and card parties. Raised Catholic, the boy learned the value of dreams, visions, and the soothing aspects of prayer in unison. He later earned degrees in Literature and Writing at Eastern Washington University, and served as poetry editor for Willow Springs Magazine. With the publication of his first novel in 1989, Peterson turned his back on mainstream publishing and has not looked back. Since 2007 he has published nearly thirty books of poetry and fiction. He lives in the Southwest and still gets around.

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2017 Geoff Peterson. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 03/23/2017

ISBN: 978-1-5246-8555-3 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5246-8554-6 (e)

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models,

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

for my uncle

who saw it coming,

welcomed it, died.

Sung: conflict

              —I Ching

Men need to make themselves suffer…

                  —Jean-Pierre Melville

the texts

Leftovers

Rules & Procedures

Resume

Game 7

Contemptible

Election Axis

Slap in the Face

Lines in Exile

Late Sleeper

Return to Base

Hangover

Ashram

Quiz, 1979

Today’s Zodiac

Decadence

Book Fair

My Apprenticeship

On the Case

Clarity

Election Results

Last Words

Dawn Meditation

The Day

Walking Meditation

Panic Attack

Bobadilla

Fidel Muerte

The Bartender

Snow Drifts, Stained Glass

Meditation 2

Meditation 3

Meditation 4

The Art of the Deal

Privilege

Election Live-Stream

My Mother of Sorrows

Rustbelt haiku

Road Trip

The Legend

Daily Practice

Poet-in-Residence

Meditation 5

Dancing in the Dark

Missing in Action

Motel Monologues

the hundredth time

The God I Am

my last appointment

Divorcee

Meditation 6

the 1¹th hour

The Reader

Dinner Meditation

The Group Readings, 1-5

Week Six

Weeks 7-8

Week 12: Allow Me

Men & Death

Maybe

Message Memory

Real Life

The Dam at Folding Chairs

The Folding Chair Lecture

Alone, Our Madness

The Curse

Folding Chairs

Ten Thousand Moons

At Swim with Father

The God Head

Xmas +1

Onset: Winter

At the End

The Summit

Loss

Nobody the Wiser

Cut-Outs

Sports Book

Meditation with Cigarette

Joint Subscription

Elsewhere

Recycle

Mother God

My Complaint

Daybook

Taize

Finale

Acknowledgments

About the Author

Leftovers

sermon at the window

I was back east staying in a vacant apartment above my friend who rented the 1st floor. The owner of the house had vanished but was filing suit against a former upstairs tenant, a needle junkie with a jones for scripture. Back rent was owed, not to mention damage to property: real life lessons.

It’s 2016 and I was on less than even terms with real life, but my friend took a chance on inviting me to stay upstairs, as it seems a woman across town was stonewalling my creeping back into her life after a wretched silence. I had no car, little money, and no excuse for being there.

With the key and a pillow I climbed the stairs to the bare rooms that extended to the front and looked out on a ball diamond through the tops of trees. Beyond the park were boarded up houses and a corner