Tuesday, January 03, 2012
poem by Phillip Appleman
New Year's Resolution
Well, I did it again, bringing in
that infant Purity across the land,
welcoming Innocence with gin
in New York, waiting up
to help Chicago,
Denver, L.A., Fairbanks, Hon-
olulu--and now
the high school bands are alienating Dallas,
and girls in gold and tangerine
have lost all touch with Pasadena,
and young men with muscles and missing teeth
are dreaming of personal fouls,
and it's all beginning again, just like
those other Januaries in
instant reply.
But I've had enough
of turning to look back, the old
post-morteming of defeat:
people I loved but didn't touch,
friends I haven't seen for years,
strangers who smiled but didn't speak--failures,
failures. No,
I refuse to leave it at that, because
somewhere, off camera,
January is coming like Venus
up from the murk of December, re-
virginized, as innocent
of loss as any dawn. Resolved: this year
I'm going to break my losing streak,
I'm going to stay alert, reach out,
speak when not spoken to,
read the minds of people in the streets.
I'm going to practice every day,
stay in training, and be moderate
in all things.
All things but love.
~ Philip Appleman ~
This is a poem that reveals a sensibility very different from that of Rumi or Rilke. It is extremely modern, given over (in its opening) to irony and objectivity--until the end, when the poet softens, becomes more optimistic, and speaks of love.
I think one of the challenges for us in today's world--especially those of us who have experienced deep spiritual awakening--is to live in both worlds--to appreciate the contemporary sensibility (which may involve ironic detachment and exclude transcendence)--and also to be in deep resonance with the truly great visionaries, who affirmed divine presence and holy love.
I think our challenge is greater than it would have been in other eras--when one could more easily tread a sacred path--and made ever more difficult today, when irony and skepticism seem to prevail.
Thoreau had a phrase I love. He speaks of "innocence clarified by experience." None of us today can claim to be totally innocent--we see too much of the world for this. But, if we are lucky, we can still retain much of our original innocence, not rejecting it and becoming disillusioned or bitter, but allowing it to be "clarified" (made more pure) by experience.
Thus we are able at times to connect through Kundalini bliss states or other moments of transcendence with primal purity, the unadulterated truth of our being, the state we recognize as our true selves.
(photo found on Photobucket)
