A moralizing speech

We are too far removed
from the initial awe
crusted information
over processed
analyzed, interpreted,
evaluated

D E C O N S T R U C T E D

The initial brilliance
of the encounter,
engagement is lost…

The trick is
don’t allow
previous interpretation,

WISDOM

To cloud your own
intense, primal,
visceral, and unique
encounter with the world.

Because I didn’t know any better

Silly things I believed
when I was a very young child:
the world was black and white
until they invented color film;
the earth rotated but clouds
were fixed in the sky;
that if you experienced pain in dreams
it was because you were hurt in real life;
in mythic furniture called chesterdrawers
(because my parents had Oklahoma accents
and never said chest-of-drawers);
when I died my spirit would be able to travel
into every space on Earth,
down to the Mariana trench,
over the Himalayas,
through Victoria Falls,
within the molecular structure of atoms –
wherever I wanted to go*;
and finally,
eventually with education and attention
everything would become clear.

*As a child I imagined that when I died I’d get to go everywhere in the world, see the hidden places. In my dream world it was all beautiful, breathtakingly freeing, a monumental liberation from the constraints of embodiment. It was always without people and I never imagined anything terrifying or disgusting. It was part IMAX helicopter shot mixed with invulnerability. Spiritual bliss attained through natural beauty.