We learn to walk uprightly
a delicate balance between mind
and the need to crawl into a muddy space to hide.
Our organs continually
spasm and twist with parasites
to whom we are little more than feeding grounds.
Uncentred and impious
we dig the meat from between
our teeth and dirt from the cracks in our soles.
But we seek absolution
nonetheless and train our eyes on
the nebulous heavens expecting an infallible reply.
Marian has given us Just One Word: Muddy, a glorious epithet for the toads.
Title Ref. Ps 84:11
Impious! Love, love. Digging the meat from my teeth right now :)
ReplyDeleteIt is a great word, and certainly hit the right spot for me.
DeleteAh! the word "impious" or, impía (in Spanish) spoken with enough disdain to cripple a small country, brings all kinds of memories to my mind. It was one I heard often while growing up wild and free in a land where religion was law and most of its practitioners judges. The pronouncement was more often than not drowned by my cackles.
ReplyDeleteI adore that 3rd stanza, all defiance and play-on-words, so beautifully alive (wild and free).
P.S. I first read "organs" as "orgasms", and reading the rest of the stanza with the mistake uncorrected had me laughing until I nearly choked.
I quite like your first reading though... Haha!
DeleteHow can an accusation of impiety be anything but hypocritical?
I do love the sense of human nature to hide... we have always won more by hiding... to really gaze upward takes courage
ReplyDeleteYes, hiding does seem to come more naturally.
DeleteAnimated mud, that's us. That's everything. So why do we think we are above it all?
ReplyDeleteOrganically we mostly run by involuntary activities, e.g. "Our organs continually spasm and twist with parasites to whom we are little more than feeding grounds." But we are above that using our well developed brains, organic, and minds which are intangible tools used to guide our everyday life.
ReplyDelete..
So one would hope.
DeleteWe supposedly are fashioned from mud, or so many believe and yet we somehow forget that... take on airs. I love how the third and forth stanza hinge on each other - what we really are / what we think we are. It's a deep poem... you are great at poems where light and dark reflect upon each other.
ReplyDeleteThere more I experience, the less inclined I am to romanticize human nature. Perhaps I think too deeply on unimportant details though.
DeleteImpious. Yes. We dig the carrion from our teeth and think we are so superior when we still have our arms swinging in the mud. I lkke how the 3rd and 4th stanzas reflect off each other, like images in a blurred mirror
ReplyDeleteThanks for the great comment.. arms swinging in the mud.. i like that.
DeleteHow important it is to take this stance with ones own life. Personally I like to think I am doing no harm but sadly we are forced to by buying goods wrapped in plastic that will contaminate the Earth and seas for generations. But nobody cares enough to realize ones own children may suffer. Sadly humanity has always muddied the waters!
ReplyDeleteI don't think many individuals mean to do harm; it is the trap of socialization and evolution that has brought us to where we are today.
DeleteUgh, now I have to rewrite mine. I completely love how this connects together from stanza to stanza, but how each one is a battlecry of its own. Patchwork poetry at its finest! Thanks for sharing and viva la!
ReplyDeleteYour poem made me poem envious... I loved the structure of it. Thanks for coming over to read, Izy.
DeleteWonderful, Kerry. And I am in awe of the poems you posted at Skylover today as well.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Sherry. I have been transferring my April poems over to that site. I am happy to know you visited.
DeleteAn infallible reply would be a comfort wouldn't it? Though with our many failings, we'd still manage to get the message wrong anyway.
ReplyDeleteSo true!
Delete"uncentered and impious" - love it!
ReplyDeleteOh, we lift our eyes to heaven and beg forgiveness for our own damning. Love the poem!
ReplyDeleteThe human condition .... in poem form. Splendid.
ReplyDeleteHumans are so inspiring, aren't they?
Delete