Belonging to the Universe - Barry Vesser

[Larry Robinson]

Belonging to the Universe

“We are all part of a net, 
from which we cannot fall”
             - Joanna Macy

Wanting and not having
Or having and still 
not being quite satisfied
Seems to drive us from one 
Folly to the next, until the
Whole thing collapses
Into the smoldering ashes
Of a bombed out city
Whose few remaining 
Inhabitants try to 
claw life out of rubble,
In the wake of
An act of violence or 
cruelty that throbs its 
Contagious pain
in every direction.
This is what the human world
Looks like shorn of its
Sense of belonging, lost
In the desperate attempt   
To make life conform to
Our ideas, our needs.

Every moment there are
People suffering, 
many needlessly
Like the first wave of troops
Lured to the slaughter and
Quickly maimed by ignorance.
At this moment, there are people 
bereft, tortured, lost.
If you are not among them
you should fall to your knees
And thank or pray to whatever 
you think is worth praying to.
Being able to walk, 
to touch another being,
To take in the world unimpeded
Is a miracle, ushered in
Every moment of your life.


There is another world,
Universe actually, 
Bursting with energy, 
Life, mysterious forces,
Beauty, and complexity
That an ape’s brain can 
Hardly comprehend,
Impervious to its
need to categorize.
It can also be a dangerous,
Uncertain, transient place
But never hostile.
Tornadoes and earthquakes, yes,
But interstellar nurseries,
Suns a thousand times the size of ours
Dark energy holding the visible,
Galaxies spiraling into
Space vaster than a human
Metaphor can incompass,
Into a silence that you can only
Hear if you listen past your
Birth and death into the
Place from which all sound
arises.

How to hold these two realities?
How to step back from our particularity
All those moments and mementos
That we are sure define us
To see that all the atoms buzzing in
Our body are just a temporary
Configuration, a sand painting,
That will not be contained,
They swim in the sea of infinity
Dreaming of new ways to come together
And then exquisitely 
let go.

	- Barry Vesser
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