Mandalas

Tibetan Buddhist monks create Mandalas out of sand, A process that, to me, Is very hard to understand. For colorful designs composed With symmetry and care Are made by placing grains in patterns Quite beyond compare. It may take hours, even days, Until the work's completing And then it's swept away to prove That all in life is fleeting. In Denver's Art Museum, near A mandala intact, The visitors can make their own, On paper, though, in fact. With colored pencils we filled in Our complex mini wheels And, like the monks, perhaps we knew How satisfaction feels. But one big difference - when complete, We got to take ours home, As proof of vision and An inspiration for a poem.