Here are these concerns--
the liquid and the dream,
all those who have been
composed of water, and
bonded to elements of
the earth, and powered
by the stellar fires of
that dark and airless
heaven above
Here are these concerns--
the sunlight and the tomb,
all those walking in dusk
and dreaming ever closer
to the coffins and urns of
evening, and as they find
their everlasting grasp on
this place will be their
entrance into the earth,
becoming food for another
thousand generations,
forms alterable, and the
afterlife means being
subsumed and consumed
and glorified in the insect's
carapace or the tree branch
or the flower's petal,
for every and ever, amen
Here are these concerns--
and small ones they are,
but we are, for this moment,
ourselves, made up of all
the millions of generations
and their dust, this glorified
husk, fearful of the moment
when we, too, will enter
eternity.
5 comments:
"but we are, for this moment,
ourselves, made up of all
the millions of generations
and their dust,"
A powerful concept, Firehawk. Either I'm becoming more and more attuned to your writing, or you are gatting better and better -----perhaps, both. Right now, you are without a doubt, my favorite poet.
glorified in the insect's
carapace or the tree branch
or the flower's petal,
I love that.
Ashes to ashes. For me the cycle of life is beautiful. Nothing is wasted: "every drop of rain will fall again." It's important to see ourselves as part of, and not seperate from or above, this world in which we evolved. You do a great job of making that clear in this poem.
Although I fear we've gummed up the works quite a bit, I suspect that the earth will survive our silly hubris. There is still time under the sun for new life to evolve. The new forms my not be as clever as we, but perhaps, like the whales, they'll posess a bit more wisdom.
As forceful and searing as thunder, these words are. ^_^ That second stanza had me riveted. "The sunlight and the tomb"... That blew me away. Brilliant.
Doc,
I'm just wearing you down...
Thanks, though. I appreciate the compliment.
MB,
I occasionally fumble blindly toward some important thought. Glad you liked this one.
Swiftboat,
We seem more than capable of making a mess too big to clean up alone, but I feel confident that, in time, the world will shake us off her back like an infestation of fleas and move on.
Soulless,
Glad to see you around again! I'm happy to make in impact, of course. I hope I didn't go overboard with the "searing" part. I was really just riffing on the idea that we just get to use these chemicals we're made up of for a little while--after that, they go back into Community Chest.
Thanks, all, for coming over. It's appreciated.
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