Return {a poem}
When we say return
let us not return to denial
or the fog of focusing
only on our own desires.
Instead, let us turn
towards something so new
as to be perpetual—
that moment of seeing
the truth so clearly
that nothing will ever be
what it was in the garden,
no matter how we worshipped
its apparent innocence.
Beyond those walls
there was always suffering.
Let us not return to a time
when we could close our eyes,
when we could justify
inaction or shake our heads
in pity on our way to the centers
of commerce and busy-ness
that thrive on numbness.
No. Instead, this year,
in this day and in this season,
let us plunge into the heart
of how achingly connected
we are, how the turning
of this fragile planet
is not under warranty, how
the ladder we’ve erected
where some will always
have a better view must come down
for good, that we may live
not in illusion but on the grounds
of what is real, tangible, and true.
This waking, this is the return
of soul to body, a re-pairing
so forceful it may hurt, it may jolt
you away from comfort
and consolation, and yes, you might
resist it. Let this moment
be not a test but an opportunity
to come back to what has always been
available to you— depth, feeling,
and facing what is beneath
the quiet surface of things.
Don’t turn away.
Return.