THE GREAT TURNING
I.
My sweet darlings,
however did you stay afloat for so long
and never suspect you were
built to breathe underwater?
Why did you never toss thoughts
around in three dimensions,
never loose them like dragonflies
into the deep sky?
How could you fear falling?
Didn’t you see the spiders
stringing safety nets
across the earth every day, just in case?
II.
Instead, you tore at this world, and I watched.
I felt the air’s grim thickening, saw the waters rise.
You were huddled at the precipice—at the very brink,
my loves—and still bellowing for more.
What crucial inspiration turned you at the last?
I’ll never know what broke over you,
and with what calamity, clamor
or grace—
but when you knelt, as one, it was a mighty sight.
You placed your hunger on the ground
and left it to lie among the gadgetry of old logics,
beside the corpses of cruelty and greed.
You were exquisite to me then, long-legged and bright-eyed,
built of gravel and stardust; oh,
my sweet, funny loves. My unfurling galaxy, my
pebble-scatter of promises.
III.
And so we came to the age of the great unbuilding,
where everyone’s name is stillness.
Here, day gathers you into the deep magic of play.
Here, night powders you with the ancient magic of rest.
It’s a time of dragonflies.
So be soft in your hearts, dear hearts,
for we are all cast shining and short-lived into the sky—
And allow your face to take the shape of wonder
when your children ask again to hear the tale
of the time you almost broke the world.
You found all the words, light writer Ro. This is MAGICAL. Thank you for the pebble scatter, the shape of wonder, the dragonflies. xo
Thank you, my inspiration! I aspire to your distillation.
I can taste the hope, as surely as if I were eating it. Thank you for this gift. Hope is often in short supply.
“Built of gravel and stardust” …..you, dearest Ro, capture the real and the dream, the hope and the hard, and with each word is love. So life changing. Thank you!!
So beautiful. So magical. My heart grew fuller and my busy mind became peaceful.
Thank you Ro.
Oh my my my, Ro. This poem flows into me like water into a parched landscape. My ancient heart murmurs, “Oh… You know. You know. I know this too. So many have forgotten…” Thank you for finding words for this knowing. I needed to read this today.
Just holy wow! You created a cosmic collision of excruciating and exquisite… and it landed on me in a prefect time of need! Wonders of the universe ~ How grateful I am for your voice.