<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=us-ascii"></head><body style="overflow-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;"><div dir="auto" style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size: large;">The Anesthesia of Abstraction</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size: large;"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size: large;">1.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size: large;">Talk of oneness, or twoness, or the Trinity,</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size: large;">of beingness or the Kingdom of God,</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size: large;">of love, presence, the numinous and the eternal:</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size: large;">how far away such talk takes us, far away</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size: large;">from the shade of the avocado tree,</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size: large;">the thighs of ripe persimmon,</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size: large;">the tongues of cattle licking</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size: large;">the great blocks of salt</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size: large;">in a hot</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size: large;">dawning</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size: large;">field.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size: large;"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size: large;">2. </div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size: large;">For every time someone says systems theory</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size: large;">one must say pines in the darkness;</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size: large;">for every time someone says biodiversity</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size: large;">or biophilia or sustainability</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size: large;">someone must shout musk</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size: large;">or barracuda or the whiskers</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size: large;">of the carrot. The real, living,</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size: large;">piebald world; we drop a cloak over it</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size: large;">with our cumbrous sophistication,</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size: large;">For every time someone says</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size: large;">cumbrous sophistication</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size: large;">someone must say the thighs </div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size: large;">of the goddess</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size: large;">stippled</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size: large;">with</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size: large;">light.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size: large;"><br></div><div class="gmail_default"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="font-size: large; white-space: pre;"> </span><font size="4">- Teddy Macker</font></div><div><br></div></div></body></html>