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.