If the Philosopher is Right

If the philosopher is right,

that all we are

and all the earth around us

is only a dream,

even if a bright, long dream-

that everything is nothing

but what sits in the mind,

that the trees, that the red bird

are all in the mind,

and the river, and the sea in storm,

are all in the mind,

that nothing exists fierce or soft or apt to be

truly shaken-

nothing tense, wild, sleepy-nothing

like Yeats' girl with the yellow hair-

then you too are a dream

which last night and the night before that

and the years before that

you were not.

My partner is a philosopher, and over the years I have learned how right he has been.  It's a bit appalling to admit, but heck, I already admit to being lost and mad with love, so why not also be "wrong?" 

For instance, we've had this discussion dozens of time where we ask, "What exists outside of the mind?"  At one time I would have said,"How silly, everything exists and is real."  What I believe he has always said, although he can't speak for himself as he is off on a Zen Buddhist retreat, is that the question no longer matters to him.  Whether dream or not, the important question is "How do you treat those with whom we share this planet?" 

I might ask it this way...

"How can you be shaken to your core every day so that the dream of beloved community comes into being - not just in our mind, but in all minds?" 

If we as a group of people can envision this way of living, with our hearts broken letting in the whole world, love and compassion is real. Isn't it?    

It might be if this day, you and I, admit we are all wild fools.  We are not ourselves. We are the world.

Where are you not?