~Poetry~
Stop for a moment if you will
Take one full breath
In through the nose
Fill your lungs as full as they will
Be gentle, go slow, slow as you can
Fill, fill, and once you can fill no more, stop
Hold your lungs full for a moment or two
When it feels right, release
Slowly gently let the air pass your lips
As slow as you can manage
Release all the air in your lungs
All of it, squeeze it out
When empty hold for a moment or two
This is what it means to breath
Such a simple thing
Yet there is endless depth
Should you choose to look
To listen, to feel, to breathe
Most of us do this unconsciously
The body breaths
Just as the heart pumps
Yet this breath is no small thing
Stop breathing for 30 minutes.
No? Well 5 minutes?
No? 2 minutes?
See? This is no small thing
Yet it’s ignored
The smallest things oft are
Yet the greatest profundity may be found
To just see what’s there
Stretch out your hand before your face
Look for a moment, look deeply
See every wrinkle, every scar, every blemish
See all these hands have done for you today
See all they’ve done for you in this lifetime
Imagine every task they have accomplished
Every word they’ve written
Every tool they’ve handled
Every other hand they’ve shaken or held
All we’ve ever created built up from this
Consider this technology for a moment
Wiggle your fingers
They do so without as much as a thought
Make a fist
Drum your fingers
Snap your thumb
In an instant, it is so
Consider this technology
These are no simple feats
Imagine all the complexities happening
Under the skin,
The tendons, muscles, nerves, and neurons
All a perfectly orchestrated symphony
That self heals,
Strengthens when trained,
Is both water tight and still breathable
Self-cooling
Consider this technology
Truly consider this
It’s a miracle
Truly
Now consider this
That which created this hand
This creator is clearly of an intelligence
Unimaginable Intelligence
So vastly far beyond our own
Consider the best prosthesis we’ve made
And one could laugh at the comparison
Jagged little hooks and plastic fingers
Our intelligence pales to compare
Now consider too that this creator
Whatever that might be
That which created your hand
So too created the trees, birds, and bees
Created the rivers and fields
The grass and all the creatures feasting
This intelligence put in motion a technology
So incredibly advanced
So fundamentally profound
We’ve missed it
As we’ve missed the breath
There exists before us a garden
The garden
And in our arrogance
In our greed
In our foolishness
We’ve thought we can improve
Thought we can do better
And so cut off the hand of god
And in its place install a hook
A sad mockery
We’ve called it progress
Patted ourselves on the back
Praised ourselves as the most intelligent
Yet all we’ve done is destroy
Defile, pillage, rape, and murder
And most pathetic of all
It is we who suffer it
Our ignorance
Our sin
Dust In The Mountain 