I eat time and as I age
whatever I swallow grows timeless.
- Mark Nepo
ARAR
The mystery of illness
Mark Nepo
It is said out of emptiness we can create dis-ease
and even if that dis-ease grew into a world
the way the earth grew out of God’s emptiness,
we are not Gods and cannot bear it. It replaces us,
until severely empty we must fill ourselves endlessly
or comply like a secret to bareness.
It is said that those who are ill understand
the beauty of erosion and the power of falling water,
and those who are cut by simply living face two forms
of dis-ease: one from the friction of living and one
from not accepting what is.
It is said that those in pain can no longer fear pain
the way those in water can no longer stay dry.
And just as one who soothes another’s loneliness
is made less lonely, those who accept another's
pain are made more whole.
It is said that those who have been empty and ill
know these are mysterious seasons. And those still
wet with pain know, be it physicians or lovers,
they cannot be cured by anyone whose
emptiness is greater than their own.
I have been all these emptinesses
and still, I am alive. What better proof
a pebble can sing.
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