Inside World

 

It’s tempting to conclude

that we’re a spirt looking out-

a shackled fragment of divinity…

But if we

see the inside of our eyes

hear the inside of our ears

feel the inside of our skin-

Aren’t we outside looking in?

Think of All that Made You

think of how the stars aligned

and died

and tossed tiny pieces of you

into infinity

before amassing into a ball

and another ball

cooling and cracking

settling, shifting

eating, splitting

building structures

linking them to higher systems

sensing light

learning to spawn

and swim

and crawl

and walk

and talk

and sing

and think

learning to forget it all

 

 

 

 

How I Remember It

certainty

a single stalk of youth

united in the upward climb

towards what I did not care to know

now begins the great construction

to reveal the purpose of my content

still I fear what may happen

if I dare to open and

expand

Drip

the old machines

of modern mind

find “the Fight” in everything

nothing dances

nothing sighs

when senseless quantifying blinds

on fragile threads

it tightly clings

around the neck of life it wrings

carving paths

from this to that

winding, growing, storing fats

within borders

thinly real

tuning out what sensors feel

can’t disconnect

can’t see below

can’t ever know what mountains know

trickly stream

melting snow

show loyalty by letting go

decompose

rotting stump

admit there’s grace in giving up

Frames

Tree

The tallest conifer

does not stoop

or find shame in height

it endures the creatures

who find home within its flesh

or build homes out of its flesh

and when great winds blow

it bends greatly.

Swirl

Affect

Nothing goes unbent

by flowing torrential

environs yet

from fresh start

to timely end

the spirit sticks

and all skins shed

Real

it plays and flickers

a juvenile fire

dying and reforming

frothing and flowing

turning on a dime

a glacial river

fresh but full of sediment

ferrying life from peak to basin

carving grooves in bedrock

dragging stones along the bottom

 

 

Choice

Who set me to this rhythm?

What put me on this path?

I navigate a sea of doors,

with Time’s heat on my back.

 

Whose wisdom do I take

when each negates the last?

When contradicting masters

fix students to the past?

 

My people are abandoned

their time is bought and sold.

Their joy is filed down by fear

and promises of gold.

 

I follow simple patterns.

I keep to roads worn old.

When shining towers shout commands

I don’t do what I’m told.

 

My teacher is the surging sky.

My school is Nature’s Way.

In life I study for the test.

In death I graduate.