What is Precious

 

“We are travelers on a cosmic journey,        stardust, swirling and dancing in the eddies

and whirlpools of infinity. Life is eternal.

We have stopped for a moment

to encounter each other,

to meet, to love, to share.

This is a precious moment.

It is a little parenthesis in eternity.”

                    ― Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist 

 

Say life is ever-where and always,
but we are only aware when we stop, look around,
and interact with other lives and other life forms
such as an ant, fox, microbe, and planet
in our “little parenthesis in eternity.”
 
Do stories exist beyond the parenthesis that
do not originate here?  I wonder urgently what
life is when the eye/I/ego position dissolves outside
the parenthesis of past, present and future. I wonder
if this world’s traumas follow us out beyond.
 
Here we know too many traumas in too little time.  
We cling to anchors that have no practical use in
planetary ecology, anchors such as domination,
privilege, whiteness, and class difference
that prevent us from being open and giving.

And so our infinity stories are escape stories,
stories of reward and punishment.  Only when
we wash the film of domination off our eyes
can we write new stories of yearning and sweetness
beyond and within our precious lives.
 

My blog poems are rough drafts.

Please respect my copyright.

© 2023 Susan L. Chast