Wilderness for Real
(before the angels or the promised land)
So what happens
In the wilderness?
We think more about its passing
Forty days in the wilderness
Forty years wandering
The desert
How were they led
Without any leading?
There was no direction but
Not to find the way
One day in a wilderness
Without means except
What might fall out of the sky
Stone into bread
Water from rocks, that is
And are we to live by miracle
For many days?
The holes inside of desert walls
Holes within holes
Drive in a couple pegs
To make a shelf
This life was considered wisdom?
There must have been
The company of food
If not of people bringing it
Water must have gotten there
Somehow,
Meaning wisdom must be patronized
Sponsors for each hermit
If not a dining hall
Is a hermitage allowed community?
Is there companionship
Inside the wilderness?
Who would be alone
To hear only the heart
Wait for nerve flashes
To shine behind the eye,
This is loneliness enough
The creator hasn’t left
Each one is not a pocket watch
Inside a deist vest
There is loneliness in wilderness
Underneath there is companionship
Something we feel
Less than God
But more than ego-censorship
Affords in crowds
Magnets are not good for us
They draw us without thinking
When we can get away
Or accept it, anyway
Because it happens
Something in us owns
The time, the chance
To say, this feels like home for now
I’ll stay here while I can
Even as a long-withheld surprise
I’ll learn
Employ some craft
Commune
It shouldn’t last forever
Then I get to return
Maybe encounter you
Before returning,
All changed
C L Couch
Photo by Arto Marttinen on Unsplash
clcouch123 
May 8, 2020 at 3:39 pm
I suppose it’s called instinct, collective behaviour. We make something familiar and safe out of the wilderness, either a hole with a fire in a stone hearth, or a house with safe walls and a garden with no surprises in it.
May 8, 2020 at 5:05 pm
I guess I’d say the wilderness bewilders me. Literally, we still need to sustain ourselves. Metaphorically, it’s supposed to be place of tempering and learning. I think you’re right–we want the wilderness to be familiar and safe, which I guess would keep it from being the wilderness with all its benefits. I guess I’m wondering how the experience is in light of the general preoccupation of what’s happens after (angels tend to Jesus, the Israelites have the promised land).
May 8, 2020 at 6:38 pm
I don’t honestly think this fear of catching a virus is going to change much if anything except economically it’s going to mean impoverishment for those who were already close to the bottom. For the wilderness, nature taking back her rights as we say, it won’t happen. The parks that have been closed are full of wild animals now birds raising families in the middle of uncut lawns. There’s a sense of wonder from some people who listen to the birdsong and watch the animals, others just want to get back in there, unpack the picnic and get the frisbees and beach volley going.
May 8, 2020 at 4:32 pm
To return to the simple life and away from consumerism……but that is just age speaking on my part. I remember my consumer days well……that was my magnet, you so eloquently expressed. Just a comment from someone still seeking the promised land.
May 8, 2020 at 4:58 pm
Thank you, and I hear you. I like my things, too. There’s wisdom in the wilderness, I understand. And it’s supposed to lead us somewhere.
May 9, 2020 at 2:51 pm
Wilderness – it represents so much. The unknown, the wildness, the uncertainty of where food and sustenance will come from, the solitude, the loneliness, the untamed, the pure force of mother nature, who will do her thing no matter what we humans want. The wilderness feels like now, the state we are in, and in the last stanza, you’re right, it shouldn’t last forever, and we will meet again.
I was just listening to the “On Being” Podcast where Krista Tippett was talking about the book, “When Things Fall Apart.” Things WILL fall apart, and then they’ll come together, and then they’ll fall apart again. The pandemic is a falling apart, but that will fall apart too, eventually. The wise words were “abandon hope” and just abide in whatever is happening. All interesting food for thought. I hope you’re well, Christopher, and enjoy your weekend.
May 9, 2020 at 8:27 pm
Thank you, Cathy, and especially for your comments. The wilderness as the unknown. Where things fall apart. Both aspects resonate, especially feeling the current time as wilderness. We don’t know what’s coming, and (but) we must keep on. And we’ll have to reassemble with what we’ll know and have, after. Seems rather daunting, which means it’s time and will be time to endure and persist.
I’m okay. I hope your weekend’s going well.
May 11, 2020 at 10:02 pm
The current time sadly feels more like prison to me than the wilderness, although I can see that too, the 40 days lost in the wilderness and all. I love being outdoors in nature, but since so many parks are closed now, I feel like the true wilderness is out of my reach. And yes, the uncertainty of it all is what’s so unsettling. Yet, if we truly admitted our powerlessness, we would see that all of life is uncertainty. How we love to plan and think we have control! All for naught. 😦
May 9, 2020 at 3:50 pm
So powerful. Thank you!
May 9, 2020 at 8:28 pm
You’re welcome–and thank you!