the great conversation

yes, oh yes….
i know there is great magic in the world….

call it god,
call it science….

there are a thousand names for
this force….

and a thousand ways to deny it….

so many ways we become smaller than we need to be,
so many ways to muffle our talents and gifts….

in a thousand ways
we throw our gifts back
in the face of god….
of the world….

•••

sometimes, i need a meadow,
it is true…..

a place to lie down in the green grass
and renew myself….

a place to look up at the sky
while lying on the earth
and only be
a connection….

a place where the conversation goes on….
between god and earth,
sky and gaia,
magic and science….

•••

i am not hiding
that i am a crazy
frightened planet-walker…..

but i cannot hide
that i am crazed with love as well
for life in this
huge black void
through which we spin….

•••

at night, in my meadow, counting stars in
the sparkling black sky,
i tell myself the story of my success:

today,
i got up….

•••

let me be the place, god…..
where your conversation grows….

the place where great love lives,
reveals itself in every leaf and storm….

let me be the living result of this great
science experiment
you have set up here on earth….

let me find the way between the living and the dead,
between ardor and heartache,
courage and surrender….

let me follow in the footsteps of
saints and students
lovers and thinkers….

of those who got up each day
in the face of their own nightmares

and ran across chasms
with only faith underneath them….

beside my fear,
let me walk into the gap between the known and
the unknown…..

let me stay a part of
your great conversation....

________
© 2010
Beth Anne Boardman