Of Course the Essence of it All

Of course the essence of it all is love

How else explain the hardest blackest
coal nugget turns to diamond clenched

in earth’s rockiest deeps?

How else explain a mother penguin
returning from miles away goes

right to her squeaking speaking offspring
somewhere in the middle of a few thousand

pretty identical penguins to our eyes and ears?

How else explain us all sitting here or
standing in a doorway idling our motors or

walking at a brisk or leisurely pace down a
crowded street at noon and

back to our comfortable chair or bed or
grave at last with God willing a

smile on our face?

The wave of it washes over all of us in its

tea-for-two billion tsunami its
sit-down-under-a-tree until enlightenment

earthquake its be-called-out-from-the-cave by
Gabriel standing on the horizon head

gone into clouds designation of
prophecy on Muhammad peace be

upon him with each gnat’s wing beat here and
in all starry eternity forever?

Love seeps through our pores blasts through our
walls bounces along sound-waves careens

down deer-stampeding mountainsides
and up opposite slopes into cascading

sunlight

It bubbles out of our eyes and back
into them again with

what’s in our hearts just as
everything we see outside is what’s really

inside us in continuous animated
conversation one on one face to face

with God

So it has to be the essence of everything or else we’d
be swept away faster than a gambler

sweeping his winnings into his arms and
running out the door

or swifter than anything sliding off the
surface of a rotating onyx marble in

space as it hurtles towards it doom

Each breath a star orchard
each shine a rosebush of voices

jostling their fragrant petals each moment for a
higher-pitched purer sound

Each love twinkle or love rush
proof of itself alone forever

inside and outside of time

both profane and sublime

---

12/17/2012 (from The Match That Becomes a Conflagration, unpublished)

Categories: Poems, Love