XII

 

Earth bursts forth into consciousness

wherever she can

every inch of rock dust

whirled into life

or curled into the protective

shell

of some animate

thing

 

It’s amazing

the swirl of

endless forming

 

& even more remarkable

that abundance,

the Riot of Spring,

those trillion-trillion-trillion buds,

we call

peace

 

while man’s expansion of his own devising

the rollercoaster of his endless toils

devoid of partnership with

God’s creation –

that

is noise

which hurts not only

our hearts, but the living earth

itself, that kills the greenfinch &

the wild daffodil.

OK,

you can say –

this simply isn’t so ,

that all is exactly as all else is

us included

& our doings

simply fulfil

the same

well determined

ways

of everything

to unfold according

to the bag of

chance

 

you’re right

- in so far as you go –

but for all of that

there is no truth in you

& your words travel nowhere

except to depression & destruction

wrapped in

clothes of certainty

 

All that you say works,

but therein lies its first great flaw -

for the universe

is so immeasurable

by what can be known

only the truth

of all that is contrary

can begin

to touch

its wildest reaches,

only the things

for which there is no definition

that are free

& floating

can lead us

to equilibrium &

the balance just beyond

the cliff-fall

 

It’s the truth that

doesn’t control,

or explain away

the living fear and exaltation

the confusion

that grips us all

 

the truth that

must be talked to

by means as odd

as it is also odd.

Let us be

danced with,

sullen, would-be lovers

that we are,

 

’ere we set out

to rule the floor.

 

 

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