once upon a time, I was a pilgrim

sailing the world upon a great ship

whence shipwrecked and wounded,

holy monks restoreth me body and soul

hence my seeking and calling, cometh

the mystic hermit monk of the

glen, the glade, the dell near the rivers edge

and its’ rituals of contemplating and cleansing

thence comes the poet of here and now,

liberating soul and spirit,

witness of Self truth and authentic belonging,

Earth being, witnessing the Cosmos, all in all

writing with the passion of righting wrongs,

asserting truth to age old lies,

breaking the silence, liberating the oppressed,

and healing the lovesick world

thus, shall speak the visionary prophet

of days to come, seer and holy troublemakers,

imagining wholly alternative futures

celebrated in stories, poetry, music, song, dance

our very existence a direct threat to the

worldly dominant totalizing systems

of the Emperor’s infidelity and brainwashing,

the hope of the prophets echoing for evermore

thus our being through time spiralling

deeper, wider, higher coming full circle

integrating individual paradoxical tension

as the One Cosmic Universal Consciousness of All

Tat tvam asi

Herb Stone

here&now working poetry

January 12, 2021

image: ‘Nautilus’ by Josephine Wall

(reader’s note: Tat tvam asi is Vedic Sanskirt

translated as ‘Thou art that’ meaning existence

is Truth of the Self as One without a second as

presented in the Chandogya Upanishad (8th. to

6th. century BCE))