Lean Into This Pleasure

“If you are a poet, you will see clearly that there is a cloud floating in this sheet of paper. Without a cloud, there will be no rain; without rain, the trees cannot grow: and without trees, we cannot make paper. The cloud is essential for the paper to exist. If the cloud is not here, the sheet of paper cannot be here either. So we can say that the cloud and the paper inter-are.” Poet Thich Nhat Hanh

The stars are glittering
The net stretches
in all directions
infinitely,
each nexus of the net a jewel.
Each jewel reflects every other,
infinite in number.
Each reflected image
bears the image
of all the other jewels.

The stars are glittering.
In each eye of the net,
the single brilliant jewel
contains the whole
Everything is connected
to everything else.
A fish and a frog and a pelican.
An elephant, an oak.
Everything contains
everything else.

The stars are glittering.
Each being is particular–
you, me, the ant, the tree.
Each particular being,
is the entire universe.
There hang the jewels,
you, me, our ancestors,
our descendants.
What is it you long for?
There it is, reach for it.

The stars are glittering.
You can unlearn
individualism.
You can touch
what you long for.
You can live from the body
single and cosmic.
The glittering jewel
reflecting everything
is you. Lean into this pleasure.

©Susa Silvermarie 2022