A Poem About Truth
by Stephen Levine
The song fills the body
going down through the soles
to connect into the earth.
Songs from the crown of the head
and the soles of the feet
are equally authentic.
Tuning up it says:
We are all carrying the maximum load
allowable by Law. Everyone is burning at the edge
and beyond, so the unexplored
may be illuminated.
What a terrible delight the truth is.
Neither ecstasy nor suicide can reach it.
It destroys only what seemed real.
It destroys all that suffers.
It displays the perfect justice of boundless space.
Truly naked beneath this worn old body,
embarrassed by the trappings of flesh and word
I bow again and again
hoping to catch a glimpse
of grace on the rise.
Reprinted from
Breaking the Drought, © 2008
Stephen Levine, by permission of Larson Publications, http://www.larsonpublications.com/
Image by: Claire Prucher Epperly
