This being human,
This being alive,
In this world, both
Here, and now,
And there, and then,
Is a question of –
Connectedness.

First there is the touch, the stroke,
The kiss, the gaze, the murmur,
The chuckle, the tear, the cry, the smile.

And then there are the words –
The conversations, the letters,
The phone calls, the emails,
Texts, Whatsapps, Zooms,
Newspapers, magazines,
Books. Scriptures. Poems. Plays.

Then there are the meetings,
The procedures,
Rules, guidelines,
Judgments, enquiries,
Investigations, speeches, announcements,
Sermons, fatwas,
Debates, and interventions.

And then there are:
The intense, intimate, subtle,
Midnight exchanges
The all-night listening,
Questioning, exploring,
The careful, attentive, precise,
Watchful listening.
The moments of insight and intuition
The sudden awarenesses from nowhere.

And then there are the arguments,
Debates, condemnations, accusations,
Cross words, insults, curses,
And then, exclamations of
Amazement and awe,
Over and over, day in, day out,
All of these creating
The web of connectedness
And communion between beings.

And all of this –
Is just with other humans –
Friends, enemies,
Partners, children,
Parents, ancestors,
Brothers, sisters,
Comrades, fellow pilgrims.

And then beyond that –
Are all these other connections,
All these other conversations,
With the air, with the earth,
With the seas and the rivers,
And the infinite sky,
And the splendid sunlight,
With the moon,
And the stars, with the gentle breeze
And the raging storm.

With the trees, with the plants,
With the insects, the worms,
The starlings, the pigeons,
The blackbirds, the eagles,
The swallows, the seagulls
The cats and dogs and horses,
And cattle and sheep and pigs,
The lions and the tigers,
And all manner of fishes and reptiles,
And even
In our imagination:
The dragons and the dinosaurs.

And then there are the spirits,
Of the earth, and the air, and the water,
And the fire. And then there are the angels.

But then,
(And if we do not stop with this)
There is this other, deeper, mysterious
Connectedness.

For when we go within,
To our inner selves,
To our deepest thoughts,
And prayers,
And meditations, and contemplations,
As we open our hearts
To something else, deep down inside us,
And beyond us,
As we try to tune in to the essence,
The Divine heart of all being,
By way of the spirit, the secret,
The hidden, and
The most hidden ……

Then: then and there,
In that time outside of time,
And that space beyond space,
The connectedness we breathe
Is way beyond words,
But it is of an unfathomable,
And indescribable,
And most precious,
Beauty.

Clive Perrett

Image: NastyaSensei