In the vision, and
visible through the arch,
a savage desert loomed with
no comfort or streams,
just thorny cactus,
(thousands of them) and
each jealously hoarding its moisture
and caring naught for others
.
Struggling to cast-off
a burnt-cork façade,
inquisitiveness
passed
through
the archway
into a wasteland
from a good position
of mind and spirit, to see
more of what it felt drawn to
.
But in this place…
.
Water, he saw,
was not enough
to survive
where thick skin
and succulent flesh
took always what it wanted
while keeping a bristly balance
.
Then it came to his sight,
a time-ravaged dwelling where
nothing was plumb, level, or square,
a ramshackle structure shaky from
time and wear, where no piece
fit another
without a gap…
And he saw there that
nothing was clearly defined,
and that black and white
were all gradations
of grays, a forest
of giant stones,
of fossilized stumps,
where a weight of sameness
never cheered in harmony together
.
Surviving it seemed,
required the ability to
see beneath the surface,
to understand the unseen,
a deeper sense of inwardness,
of belonging, of being accurate,
where the spirit did not loathe
the unending struggle
to be truthful, or
the leaning
to stand apart,
(despite sunlight’s burn
or moonlights chill) as hope
waited for blooms to burst open
and refresh weariness with redolence,
.
But in this place…
.
Water, he saw,
was not enough
to survive
where thick skin
and succulent flesh
took always what it wanted
while keeping a difficult balance
.
So, he resolved to
press forward faithfully,
to accept the challenge, to
stakeout no beginnings or ends,
to establish no fortifications,
other than his faith, from
which boundaries
would not be raised,
shutting out the light, or
separating inside from outside,
with all possibilities open,
and no path closed
to the sacred
freedoms of writing,
where truthfully sharing
allowed every impulse of vision
to explode from the core honestly,
so that when the creative
flow had finally ended,
that what was left behind
(MORE) resembled a
field of wildflowers, than the
Savage Deserts they were discovered in...
.
richard lloyd cederberg
12/2020
                         Between the Cracks - A Monumental Journey Series