This poem by Alfred K. LaMotte is longer than what I would usually post, but I find it compelling and beautiful. Yes, we humans are storytelling creatures. When I listen to the birds I think that all creatures are. Yet, we and those around us need times when we humans are not defining ourselves and staking out the territory of our egos day in and day out. Even if we let go for only a moment, that moment will be enough to let us, and therefore the world, unfurl into a brand new peace.
Love Doesn't Need a Story
As you awaken, just before
the mind of yesterday
falls like a net of stones
behind your eye,
be weightless.
Be presence without a story -
How your soul looks
in that mirror
when it sees itself!
What gets you out of bed,
trembling like a wild
purple iris in the breath
of dawn!
It doesn’t matter at all
what you will do for
a living today.
The priceless jewel
is just living.
It doesn’t matter at all
how much money
you will make today.
Your body is more
precious than sunlight,
your sternum is beaten
from finer gold.
Whether you feed
the multitudes today
or only wash the dishes
makes no difference at all.
What matters is to plunge
down the stem of this unfolding
meditation flower,
to follow the thunderbolt
in your backbone
all the way home
to silence,
to drop the terrible fairy tale
of yesterday’s rage.
The mirage of sorrow
vanishes in clarity,
your heart the whole sky.
Don’t you know that
you save the planet
just by being awake?
Love doesn’t need a story.
~ Alfred K. LaMotte
First Sip
photograph: San Leandro, March 2021
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