Poem: Spiral Jetty
Here’s a poem I wrote while standing in the center of Spiral Jetty…!
In the wind the whole world unwinds
In front of me an improbable ocean
Above me a surreal sky
At the spiral at the end of time
This beauty blasts open all words
Certainly someone knit these clouds into being
And I think all humans were designed to do
Is spin the beauty of the earth into little spirals
To reflect the beauty we are born into back and out.
At this unreal juncture in the turning world
The clouds are like bright angels.
I drove through a thunderstorm to get here
Bounded through endless mountains in the driving rain
To arrive at this windy beach
Crested by rainbows and rimmed by a circle of mountains.
I lived so many lives to come here.
Yet none of that matters now.
At the center of everything
Truth becomes visible
Time opens up
And the wind tells the true story.
I stood in the center of the spiral and thought I heard it speak.
And it said
The shore becomes the ocean.
Life begets life.
All we need is right here.
Here is the place where the shift happens.
At the end of the tunnel there is a light.
At the edge of time there is a crack.
Here is where we walk through it
Become who we were born to be.
Growing through the concrete.
Glowing in the dark.
This is the place and the time for us to ride
Past our fears and into truth.
Don’t be afraid of the path ahead.
This whole world is your home
And it holds you compassionately as you hold it.
The time is now —
The time is everywhere
The ocean becomes the flame
The rose devours the garden
The moment becomes the monolith
The angels glide across the water.
Feel the life in you straining to open
Unfurl like the wild being you are.
Comets connect disparate worlds
Walk across them
Be the endless light you are
Empty yourself of dreams
Ride the tides of galaxies
Know the truth of the ground beneath your your feet
Feel it humming and singing and howling around you
In the spiral at the end of the world
The wings rise out of your back
The palm trees unfurl
The ocean opens its arms
Walk in and leave your skin and selves behind
Soar in the radiance of everything
Leap through the thunderstorms of doubt
Cut through the dull smoke of oblivion
Come home, come outside
Ascend and shine.
Mmmmmmm, dreamy