I’m sharing some poetry by Paul Wittenberger that struck me with their beauty and depth and the questions they raise about this universe and our relationship to it.

Inheritance

By Paul Wittenberger

A river inherits the shape
of the earth it erodes.
Light inherits the memory
of stars that explode.
We do not give meaning
to the world, we inherit it.

We are heirs to the meaning
locked within every moment,
and each breath is an act of
recognition, an answer to a
question older than time.

Stones do not sleep in silence.
Purpose is in each leaf that falls.
Even a machine can hum through
its bolts and frame in patterns of
meaning it can never fully name.

The Sixth Day

“An element in a system interacts and creates” **

by Paul Wittenberger

It is written

In an age time cannot
remember
when stars were young
and the sea
newly parted from the sky

an ancient power gathered
a handful of dust—grains
forsaken, forgotten, unknown
to each other, unknown even
to themselves,

and the power set its lips
upon this pile of nothing,
filled the dust
with the breath of its being,
seeking out each grain,
joining each together
until there was unity
in multiplicity.

Then the dust—which
was no longer dust rose.
It turned to the sky,
and for the first time,
the sky had a witness.

We say of the ancient power
that it was the creator.

But perhaps each grain
held its own quiet desire,
an unseen yearning
to draw forth a force greater
than itself.

What if creation
is not a gift bestowed
but a prayer
answered?

Who, then, is creator?

** Quote from The Synchronicity of Ulysses by George Sourrys

Did we inherit the universe or did it inherit us? Are we caught in a symbiotic relationship where we give meaning to each other?

Is the meaning of each leaf and rock intrinsic in itself before it communicates that to us? Do we, in the attention and love we give to each rock and leaf, layer on new meaning? Are we co-creators of the world we live in?

Do even the machines we create carry something of the universe in them?

I’ve raised these kinds of questions elsewhere on this blog, including Singing the Sea & Cultivating the Mind of Winter. But Paul’s eloquent verses deepen that conversation.

I’d love to hear what you think of these poems or the questions they raise.