Eric Overby Quotes

I lay next to her,
The sound of her breathing fills
The room and my heart

Renga with Katie


There's no better place
Than in each moment with you
Traveling through life

Regardless of place and time,
Or seasons and location,

I never look back
To a time without you there
And wish to return

We are each other's constant
In an ever changing world





On a pilgrimage
To no place particular,
Destinationless

Each moment we're arriving
At another sacred place

Appreciating,
Remembering life before
You opened my eyes

It's both vivid and soothing
Like I'd never had vision

Now I see the way,
As we travel together
The fog is lifted

Each sight reveals each other
Each step reveals another

What is it that is so interesting
about what's happening everywhere else
but where you are?

We are just a few atoms
In the vast universe, stardust,
Yet who can measure the sum
Of two lovers and what's between us

I sung that I knew you before
The time I saw your face
The green eternity in your eyes
Made time feel misplaced
Your dress was the color of wine
And I was drunk off the taste
I sang my heart into the night
I knew you felt the same way

By marriage I am asking you
to help me become a better version
of myself, while still loving me
every moment along the way.
Continuing what you've been doing
already and I am vowing
to do the same.

My ears filled with sounds
Of the paddling of canoes
My feet filled with the dampness
Of the early morning dew
My eyes filled with the road ahead
And all that comes into view
My minds filled with thoughts
That remind me of you

Coffee in the dawn
With books open like our hearts,
Our weekend ritual

Leave each place you go
Better than when you found it,
My motto in life

From this point forth, find me nowhere,
Socially unseen,
Just on the back porch, without a care
And without a screen

I'm talking to the only one who'll listen
About the lonely nights and all that I'm missin
Haven't seen you lately but I heard your doin fine
I'm In between two places
Where my words didn't come to you in time

Meditation is
The practice of letting go
Of life each moment

Each in breath followed by out,
Receiving life, letting go

Practice letting go,
Then when death knocks on your door
You'll invite him in

I laid down my faith,
Now life makes more sense to me,
Traveling lighter

What is your heart worth?
What about your time?
What holds your heart, holds your attention.
What holds your attention, holds your time.
What holds your time, holds your life.
And if it's possessions that holds these things,
It will demand it all.

Thoughts arise in mind,
Watch them pass over like clouds,
Then they fall away

We are going to be a community of diverse people who do not think the same or live the same lifestyle, but if we are going to live together peaceably, we need to find a better way to disagree.

It's hard to tell where
It is that I end
And you begin, synergy

No amount of words,
No haiku, poem, or novel,
Can tell of our love

Be on pilgrimage
To a place that's undefined,
Destinationless

I'm walking out in the rain again
Pains the same as it's always been
Lungs full of smoke from my cigarette
And my heart breaks with every step,
But only a little bit
Walking away from myself, not getting far
Wondering if it's you I see in each passing car

What is your peace worth?
At what cost will you lose it?
- Internal questions

The Poem About Taking out the Trash

In the vast emptiness of darkness,
Stars are being born and are burning out;
Galaxies expand, into what I have no idea,
And dark matter fills the infinite space
That has no bounds and no limits.
In the middle of all this, I stand
In a single moment and know how small I am.
A group of atoms, the size of nothing in comparison.
I am the observer of the play on a tiny stage.
The onlooker who watches the painting
Of a picture that few stop to see.
The listener of a song where I hear only a fraction
Of a fraction of a note in a song that will be forever sung
And that has been being sung for eternity upon eternity,
Before I knew breath and sound.
I am but dust, stardust, a breath of a life, smoke
Rising into oblivion, here then gone as quickly.
Under all of this, I take out the trash.

The Accounting of Love and Hospitality -
Sermon on the Account


Do enough for others that it's impossible
For them to keep accounts
Of what they owe you
Or what you've done.

Lose the account yourself,
Expect nothing in return.

Make a habit of giving things away.
Pay for other people's meal,
Friends and strangers.
Keep no accounts on that either.

Take what is offered to you,
But expect or demand nothing.



Tell the people in your life
That you appreciate them
As often as you can.
There may be a day when you can't.

Tell your kids and spouse that you love them,
Often and every night.
Remind yourself
What it is you love about them.

Look for ways to be kind and helpful,
There are plenty to find.

Do things without telling others
You've done them.
Don't even remind yourself.
Do acts of kindness, then let them go.

Live a life without clinging to expectations
About who you should be.


Your friends and family will change,
Everything does, you will.
Life has a lot of additions and subtraction;
Change is inevitable.

Spend time mindfully changing yourself
Towards kindness and patience.

At the end of your life,
Which could be any moment,
Let the ones that knew you
Have lived a better life because you wer

Now is the only moment I will ever have.
I want to spend the rest of my nows beside you.

Coats of paint don't make this house a home
But with every room we paint, we are changing it to our own.

Piece by piece, wall by wall, we build

A place of peace for us all until
The house is a picture of the love we feel.

She closed her heart
As tight as Noah's ark
So nothing could get in or out
I forgot where we begin
So she let it all end
And left our love alone in the dark

Morning Meditation

I used to rise early in meditation,
As the ancient saints and mystics,
Looking for peace, bliss, and ecstasy.

Now I awake as the sun rises.
I lie beside her,
Her head and the tops of her shoulders
Revealed from the top of the covers
Where we lay. Her face shines,
As the sun rolls through the bedroom
Curtains and leave her with a mandorla
As if she were the subject of iconography.

I lay in silence as I meditate on the artistry
Of freckles that are perfectly dotted
On her face and shoulders.
I venerate the delicate curvature
Of her lips and nose. Her eyes closed,
Veiled by a composition of lashes
That shroud the green mystery underneath.
As her hair lays dark and graceful
Across the pillows in front of me,
I lay in adoration,
and know there are none like her.

Moses was not even shown God's face,
Yet she has done me one better.

I am wandering
Through this life of mine, writing
Snapshots of my life