I took this down from a dharma talk by Wes Niskar …it made me laugh AND cry. If you like it, send a dollar to Spirit Rock or something… I think you can hear Wes reading his own poem here:
http://www.audiodharma.org/talks/WesNisker.html

I meditate because I suffer.
I suffer, therefore I am.
I am, therefore I meditate.
I meditate because there are so many other things to do.
I meditate because when I was young it was all the rage.
I meditate because Siddhartha Gautama, Bodhi Dharma, Marco Polo, Carl Jung, Alan Watts, Allen Ginsberg, Alfred E. Neuman et. al.
I meditate because evolution gave me a big brain, but it didn’t come with an instruction manual.
I meditate because I have all the information I need.
I meditate because the largest colonies of living beings, the coral reefs, are dying.
I meditate because I want to touch into deep time where the history of humanity can be seen as just an evolutionary adjustment, period.
I meditate because life is too short, and sitting slows it down.
I meditate because life is too long, and I need an occasional break.
I meditate because I want to experience the world as Mary Oliver does.
I meditate because now I know that enlightenment doesn’t exist so I can relax.
I meditate because of the Dalai Lama’s laugh.
I meditate because there are too many advertisements in my head, and I am erasing all but the very best of them.
I meditate because I’ve discovered that my mind is a great toy, and fun to play with.
I meditate because I want to remember that I’m perfectly human.
I meditate because I love Jack Kerouac.
Sometimes I meditate because my heart is breaking.
Sometimes I meditate so that my heart will break.
I meditate because a Vedanta master once told me that in Hindi my name ‘Niskar’ means ‘non-doer’.
I meditate because I am growing old and want to become more comfortable with emptiness.
I meditate because Robert Thurman called it an evolutionary sport and I want to be on the ‘home team’.
I meditate because I am composed of a hundred-trillion cells and from time to time I need to reassure them that we’re all in this together.
I meditate because it’s such a relief to spend some time ignoring myself.
I meditate because my country spends more money on weapons than all other nations in the world combined; if I had more courage, I’d probably immolate myself.
I meditate because I want to discover the fifth Brahmavihara, the divine abode of awe, and then I’ll go down in history as a great spiritual adept.
I meditate because I am building myself a bigger and better perspective and occasionally I need to add a new window.