What is Broken is Revealed

Who can say
"I died and now live again,"
And has not first wilted in pain
On ash heaps in broiling heat,
Strutting failures to some dim applause
Witnessing his finite collapse,
Defying answers from gathered friends
Well meaning but empty of mystery,
And, lying exhausted in puddles of his achievement
And, having rolled over and into the void,
Freefalling, tumbling without wings,
Realized he misstep in shoes that were not his,
Laced leathers carefully devised and fashionably stitched.

Immediately, all strength becomes available,
The ear now attuned to the Something Else.

The wind rushes by his ears.
The music of emptiness becomes a chorus
In the harmonies of hissing rocks.
He shrieks into the mangled cacophony of reasons,
"Whoever says life has purpose lies,
Wanting to suck away human vitality.
Whoever says, Jump and you will learn to fly, is demented,
Trying to lap up the last smudges of grace.
Whoever says Intention is Everything, and
Clarify, clarify, clarify before you stumble through the gate,
That one has failed to live. Do not believe him: Rush away.
The smell of purpose and intention reeks of decay.

Oh. You want to live? Then
Look to roots and your ancestors.
Search deeply how they live in mud.
Merge on your burnt mountain top.
Eat ashes with awareness. Pick them off your thighs.
Put them in your mouth. Savor.
Form relationship with weeds and quarks.
Question your gods; neither worship nor submit.
Recognize and honor. Struggle, if that's important to you,
But above all, dance on the grit between your toes.
Relate for inspiration.
Everything else is diversion and nonsense,
A calamity of containment.
Only what is broken is revealed.

Copyright © 2007 James Lawer