Shared learned words..(Nancy Neithercut)

 

we are these shared learned words. they give an assumed understanding because they all seem to fit together, they all reference one another and form a net of thought, which is really like a net of razors seemingly slicing up this edgeless seamless symphony of perception into separate things and events. finding new words to describe this will not capture anything because there is nothing to capture

shooting stars burn themselves

there is no place to land

nothing to land

love builds a pyre of all that you have ever known about yourself and the world and you are gone

then she lays in her own fire

fire burns itself

life burns itself as it arises

there is no past or future or now

nothing separate from life to capture it

no things to hold

no one to hold on to this obvious magic

this preciousness of life appearing all by itself

as soon as we feel fully separate

around eight

we know this great aloneness

which we try to escape our entire lives

but without imaginary separation

we are not

love is not

there is no awareness of life

and love

and of being aware

the greatest treasure in the universe

is this imaginary division

you are it

you are the unique lens where life gets to taste its own magic

and bask in its own mystery and majesty

~~Nancy Neithercut