Sunday, July 18, 2010

Daisies

It is possible, I suppose that sometime

we will learn everything

there is to learn: what the world is, for example,

and what it means. I think this as I am crossing

from one field to another, in summer, and the

mockingbird is mocking me, as one who either

knows enough already or knows enough to be

perfectly content not knowing. Song being born

of quest he knows this: he must turn silent

were he suddenly assaulted with answers. Instead

oh hear his wild, caustic, tender warbling ceaselessly

unanswered. At my feet the white-petalled daisies display

the small suns of their center piece, their -- if you don't

mind my saying so -- their hearts. Of course

I could be wrong, perhaps their hearts are pale and

narrow and hidden in the roots. What do I know?

But this: it is heaven itself to take what is given,

to see what is plain; what the sun lights up willingly;

for example -- I think this

as I reach down, not to pick but merely to touch --

the suitability of the field for the daisies, and the

daisies for the field.

There is so much we do not know. Are you content with this? Can you still sing the rightness of your belonging on the planet in the family of things? How do we know in our bones that questions and answers are not the point, but the song we were born to sing? I think it is perhaps to have our hearts in the center of our being. This and no more.

Where do you feel "right" and as if you "belong" without reservation? Can you imagine that being everywhere and all times?

3 comments:

  1. The last two lines of the poem express such peace and acceptance that I am stunned into silence (yet I write).

    I like what you wrote, " . . . it is perhaps to have our hearts in the center of our being. This and no more." I think that might just sum it up, in a non-answer sort of way.

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  2. Good morning Ruth!

    Today's poem speaks of how Mary moves from awe and must write about it - as you say for yourself. How Zen can we humans be?

    I love your tree picture - where does it come from? The tree on my post is a sunrise in the southcoast of Guatemala nearly 20 years ago.

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  3. Your tree is magnificent. It sounds like it might have some stories behind it too. Well of course it does. But I mean related to you.

    Mine is close to our farm, just a couple of miles away. I stopped on my drive to work one morning when the sky had that spectrum of colors. I love winter trees, when they show their bare bones. And I loved how this one was crooked at the tip, which makes me think of my own imperfections, yet I can keep reaching up.

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