Once upon a time
there lived a blue world full of nattering apelings.
They spent their time shrieking at screens
and turning trees into black smoke
and turning whales into coins
and digging holes in the planet
and figuring out how to kill millions of each other at a time.
They’d spend all day yipping and yammering
about who owned what things,
about whose things were the best things,
about whose thoughts were the best thoughts,
and then when they were alone at night
they’d sit quietly under flickering electric lights
and wish that everything was dead.
And then, one day,
in the midst of the whooping and the howling,
the burning and the bulldozing,
the hating and the hurting,
life finally got a word in edgewise.
“EXCUSE ME,” life said,
from underneath the arguments,
from behind their insecurities,
from the spaces in their DNA strands,
from the depths of their being,
from their heart of hearts.
And the apelings stopped and stared,
every last one of them,
and they saw it all for the very first time.
They stared at each other,
at their flesh and their hair
and their eyes and their hands
as billions of tears
streamed down billions of faces.
They stared at the world,
at the birds and the trees,
at the sky and the dirt,
at the oceans and mountains,
and they all fell to their knees.
They opened their mouths to talk about what happened,
and nothing came out but poems and love songs.
They tried to remember their old illusions,
but it kept giving them fits of laughter.
They wept and they hugged,
and they helped each other up,
and from then on they walked gently upon the earth
as though caressing a dear lover.
Life is made of miracles,
and brimming with thunderous beauty.
The scales fall from our eyes,
and the callouses from our hearts,
and our war with our world ends forever
when we let life get a word in edgewise.
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19 responses to “Excuse Me”
May this poem travel the ether endlessly, like a gentle but inexorable scalar wave, moving hearts of apelings, who know not what they do.
I love this Caitlin! You are simply the best!
Look to the Circle of Earth to help all, round and round. Ramp it up. No Blood For Oil. No War Venezuela. Peace… Help Wanted, and thank you Caitlin and all educators for peace. FEB 23 Get in the streets for PEACE World Wide. No War Venezuela. Boycott War Country’s and Criminals of them. Power to the People. Peace…
I found you from a post on Zero Hedge. I signed up for your email posts and am I ever glad I did. I even sent $20, which is something I really can’t afford to do. But it was more than worth it. Sanity is so hard to find in this day and age. A breath of fresh air, a confirmation that I am not alone. And for your readers I offer this, from Alan Watts; https://blindhypnosis.com/the-book-on-the-taboo-against-knowing-who-you-are-pdf.html
Haha—I was wondering how you would come back after all the ‘nattering’ and even some spewing in the comments from your readers of yesterday’s post. Of course dear girl, you took the high road, and showed us once again what it is that truly matters. Thank you, Wishing you a beautiful day.
Beautiful. Of course it cuts. It cuts very deep. Beautiful.
Ok, you’ve finally gone and done it!
You made me choke up. I didn’t cry on the outside but I am sobbing on the inside. I let life get a word in edgewise long ago. You obviously did too.
An astonishing, tear-bearing poem Caitlin. Thank you. It has a musical vision-laden counterpart: the operearth ‘Sphere (The Most Passionate Love Triangle Never Imagined)’. To slightly paraphrase Emily Bronte again: ‘You burn too bright for this world.’ But never enough. You’re getting closer and closer to touching the very essence of what being alive on this magnificent planet demands of us all. Your words are necessary.
Cait, your poems lovely and your posts are great. I wonder what you think about RD Wolff work and anddemocracyyatwork.info
democracyatwork.info they have their weekly economic updates with Richard Wolff, anti-capitalist chronicle with David Harvey and capitalistm hits home with Harriet Fraad
Caitlin
The Poetry Part of my brain is pretty much fog bound but this piece read like a spring rivulet.
G, you (& Cait) read my mind.
So well stated!
Beautiful Sentiment and Words, Caitlin. Do you think this could ever be happening? When it does, I want to be here, and part of this Miracle. But, in all honesty, I won’t be holding my Breath.
“nattering apelings”…lol…Love You, Caity…xo…
Allan Watts said “The natural state of man is ecstatic wonder “.
Peter
Alan Watts said “The natural state of man is ecstatic wonder”
Woke.
Eskimos / The Inuit, were and are amazing people. This film was made 4 years before I was born.
Thanks, Caitlin, I needed this.
Lovely!