a waking mind aware of being here nor there

(or, mental amusement before seeing the light of day)

I am older than the selves of life leap-frogging along the making of time and place.

I am before the restless generations of becoming and dying and becoming. Before the chaos, the watery womanly demos of unthinking flesh and bone generating the moon time. Before the history of fallings from the womb and returnings to its vaginal elections. Before the breeding laying beneath the seeing of me alone unpartnered, uncoupled from the frenzy of fucking before corpses of stone deadly silence.

No music without the drumming of knowing nothing, knowing everything in the dance. The eros of gorging, of nippled firming of magical wands, then seed spewing and lactation. Who understands the middle churning between the alpha and omega, the bearing of souls from wet wombs spasming the vibrating streaming of being in and out of touching the accordian stops and starts. The attuning done by ear, not seeing the measurement in darkness but in light.

What withstands the onslaught of viral memories of how to suck the energy out of nothing and be such being. Rosy redness sainted nick clauses of coded connection, spitting of flakes of blood frozen in falling from night sky of the womb, here and not here, there and not there. Which is it after all?

return to poetic stuff

The Inner Lives of Children

Krista Tippett’s interview of Robert Cole is a gem.

I’ve often found kids to be prophetic in their take on happenings in the lives we share with them. Their curious natures are attuned to the questioning and storytelling at the heart of the great spiritual traditions. Their courage to express what they see truthfully and justly, even when others may try to teach them it’s best to look at things conformingly, is the spiritual fount not only for religious exploration and the growth of philosophical awareness, but also for scientific exploration and the growth in knowledge of natural phenomena.

There is personal power to be gained and effectively shared when kids and the humblest of “kids” within adults appreciate the mystery of, if not the answers to, the biggest of questions we can ask. We adults are often embarrassed by and seek to avoid mysteries we can’t explain; kids celebrate mysteries as wonderful companions for their curiosity. Even more than we adults do, they understand the world best through stories, not logical explanations–stories that have meaningful happenings in them–that dramatically tell the loss, hope, and recovery they experience themselves or see others experience.

Despite misfortunes which may happen to them or those close to them, when their vitality and good humor are supported by us in caring for them, kids learn to lead their own lives in ways that allow them to emotionally connect with others that are more fateful to their success in being productive and happy than the material means conventionally assumed to be indispensable to it. We need to give much more attention to kids’ “spontaneity and particularity,” as Robert Cole counsels, and to listen responsively to the big questions they ask. These are key to engaging them in learning who to be and what to do and why.

am I the together you want?

(written Saturday, January 12, 2008 at 6 o’clock in the morning)

Am I the together
you want
to tickle toes
and rub noses with?

Who knows
no truth but
what embracing you
awakens?

Who seeks
no good but
laughing together
at silly disagreements
between us?

Who tries
no gain but
being friends
warming the dark
and lighting the way?

return to poetic stuff