Given the negativity that so easily can come to seem the defining feature of this society, it’s good to be reminded of why so many of us push back against the forces of dark ignorance. 

Drew Dellinger’s poem is a wonderful statement of why, and a reminder to us all that good people of great wisdom are found in every spiritual community.

Carolina Prophet               
 
Poem for Thomas Berry                                                          

we were dreamed

in the cores

of the stars.

like the stars,

we were meant to unfold

 

we were dreamed in the depths

of the undulating ocean.

like the waves,

we were meant to unfold

 

like bursting supernovas, birthing elements,

 

which crucibles give rise to creativity?

 

the world makes us

its instrument.

 

Father Thomas,

speaking for stars, in a voice

old as wind: ‘origin moments

are supremely important’

 

what are the origins

of a prophet?

 

found in syllables of Sanskrit,

or Chinese characters?

in a decade of midnight prayer?

 

in childhood epiphanies

rising like heat?

blue Carolina sky;

dark pines;

crickets;

birds;

sunlight

on the lilies,

in the meadow,

across the creek.

 

born in Carolina

on the eve of the Great War,

Saturn conjoining Pluto in the sky.

raised in a world of wires and wheels,

watching dirt roads turn to pavement.

 

brooding intensity,

measuring loss

when others could see only progress.

 

white hair communing with angels of Earth

 

Father Thomas, reminding us

we are constantly bathed in shimmering memories

of originating radiance

 

we are constantly bathed in shimmering memories

of originating radiance

 

the psychic stars:

the conscious soil:

 

this thin film of atmosphere;

 

and only gravity

holding the sea from the stars.

 

when a vision of the universe takes hold

in your mind, your soul becomes vast as the cosmos.

 

when the mind is silent,

everything is sacred.

 

like the spiral

like the lotus

like the waves

like the trees

like the stars,

 

we were meant to unfold.