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