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We Are Verbs
“Having fallen several thousand feet, my body finally merged with the sea. There was no pain nor break in consciousness as everything was clearly felt and seen. I gently sank beneath the waves, descending into the depths as I looked upwards at the bright light…My world became luminescent and filled with a gentle light that pervaded the waters all around me. The light seemed so vibrant with life and was inviting me into its exquisite realm of sheer vividness and causeless delight. The feeling of being totally aware and conscious eclipsed the receding darkness as the day does the night.
It was in this moment that I awoke.
Jackson Peterson, The Natural Bliss of Being
*
CALENDARS
Back in the blue chair in front of the green studio
another year has passed, or so they say, but calendars lie.
They’re a kind of cosmic business machine like
their cousin clocks but break down at inopportune times.
Fifty years ago I learned to jump off the calendar
but I kept getting drawn back on for reasons
of greed and my imperishable stupidity.
Of late I’ve escaped those fatal squares
with their razor-sharp numbers for longer and longer.
I had to become the moving water I already am,
falling back into the human shape in order
not to frighten my children, grandchildren, dogs and friends.
Our old cat doesn’t care. He laps the water where my…
