John The Explorer Ventures Into Spirituals States (5)
Here on the eroding stone of a mountain’s peak
Here in the damp calm of a forest clearing
Here in the lee of a curling-over desert dune
under the accusing glare of one hemisphere’s stars
John knows how very small he is
no more than a speck of foot-scraped grit
of no more account than a single ribbed leaf
less than half a grain of powdered sand
that on which he stands
not even a self-lit sun
with Time both before and after him
immense, his life-span an unnoticed blink
And yet, because John now knows
that he has life passing through him
he knows that he is made of all things
of all Time
He is every one of those stars visible
He is that vein of quartz in the pink rock
the low blue flower in that crevice
the threading song of the woodland bird
the buffeting shout of the wind
“I am.”
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