For over 20 years, Phillip Moffitt has offered an annual dharma and poetry day at Spirit Rock Meditation Center in which participants read and discuss the poems Phillip has selected. The poetry selections span the centuries and come from poets who are widely known as well as new voices. Each poem is a portal into a dharma teaching.

At the August 23, 2025 Poetry Day, Phillip debuted a poem of his own titled “The Life Lived Late.” In the videos below you can listen to Phillip read the poem and then hear his reflections about it.

The Life Lived Late

The life lived late is far better
than the life not lived,
the life never fulfilled.

The life lived belatedly and finally owned
is far better than a life always disowned.

Is it that you had to earn the right?
Or is it that you had to overcome fright?

Maybe it’s not cowardice or fear.
It’s just that you couldn’t get there from here.

When all obligations have been met
but the inner voice still says, “Not yet,”
it’s time to repeat the cliché
“If not now, when?” and for you to make your way.

Solace is found in aligning
where dignity and humility are binding.
You are not controlling the outcome— 
your intuition is here to be acted upon.

The lived experience may be quiet, even indirect.
Yet your inner longing and the life lived now connect.

By Phillip Moffitt, 2025
(Unpublished)