The whole universe came visiting

A poem on embracing it all, while sifting my follies out

“colors of everything” Location: Sulphur Creek, Capitol Reef National Park, Utah. PC: Reena Kapoor (c)2023. Instagram @1stardusty

As the seasons change, I revived an old poem that captured this feeling where I want to embrace the whole universe…and make myself more worthy of it.

The whole universe came visiting

Upon my return it seemed like

the house had gotten rather full.

I unlocked the door to find 

everyone and everything there.

Too crowded to put the baggage down

that’d weighed down my getaway.

*

Sometimes your troubles don't 

remember to stay behind.

Mine bought a ticket, 

accompanying me uninvited.

I was back with them, all of

my baggage looking askance.

*

Now here I am with

all of creation contained

in two faded rooms creaking from 

the load, held together like I am 

even on days when it’s too much.

Who’s going to sort through this mess?

*

A little at a time, one step at a time,

as my father would gently suggest.

*

OK So I start with the worries:

You really have to go! I’ll keep the 

strategies, the worst-case-scenarios

but no space for ruminations that rush

in endless circles spilling it all.

*

Here are the clouds that arrive

to reign over my head.

Please blow them away, will you? 

I plead the winds from the future.

Is that the sun hiding in the corner?

Let’s ferret him out right now, 

dust him off. I’ll keep him. 

*

The moon is madness I relish. 

Leave him be. He keeps me from caring 

too much about the ways in which the earth,

gravity follow rules. So many rules. 

I ride his freedom of bordering distractions.

*

Where’s my impatience? She runs 

like a second skin I can surely lose.

Let me wrap her up deliberately

in a package. So slow it’s tiresome.

Exasperated by every second I take 

in my glacial purpose to be rid of it.

Rivers, mountains, cliffs and sands stay.

*

Let me rummage through the rest;

Flowers? Yes! And trees and birds 

that wake me daily? Yes, the earth itself,

oceans, planets, faraway suns I’ll keep.

Or where would my wonders travel?

*

I’ll keep my curiosity, my exploration, 

my curious questions, unanswerable ones

I want to be here for those when they arrive

as I go sorting through this whole house!

Today’s the day the whole universe came visiting…

### 

-reena | April 2023 originally…

This poem came out of…I don’t know where or why? I only know when. Does it ever happen to you when you wake up, step outside and sit with a cup of something warm and in those moments the breeze and the sun and the air all conspire to arrive in just the right resonance of touch and temperature and song, and you feel like the whole world is with you?

And that you’re just here in the right place and at the right moment in a perfect symphony with the universe? When that happens it feels like the whole universe came visiting.

Those moments are a gift of eternity in beautifully etched relief on the bare canvas of life.

“Eternity isn't some later time. Eternity isn't even a long time. Eternity has nothing to do with time. Eternity is that dimension of here and now that all thinking in temporal terms cuts off.... the experience of eternity right here and now, in all things, whether thought of as good or as evil, is the function of life.”

―Joseph Campbell,The Power of Myth

Even as such moments bring a twinge of sadness that this blue of the skies will one day be lost. But in the meantime the whole universe is here, with me, in my home.

Do you see it?

---

Good news!

I am in a new book! An edited version of a sci-fi story I wrote is now published in a new speculative fiction Anthology called: "One Universe to the Left" by the Redwood Writers.

Link to buy.