Beyond The Last Program - Secular Version Poem by Tom Courtney

And so we step out
beyond the last program
beyond the parking spots
from the automobiles
now stacked like tiny eggs in little cartons
huddled together and locked up tight
against the cold

Passing the rough-cut
lacquered green-paint wooden signs
stepping off into the longer grasses
accompanied by the tunes of the first real crunching
of all my attitudes and preconceived notions
into powder

And on into the tall thin ravine
that nature filled so many eons ago
the fertile soil from many mountain rains
brings life up surprising us all around

And leaning against these heavy packs
so ponderous for city backs and shoulders
Our little trek into the heart of the earth
means nothing less than an extraction
from all our own creations

Now a tiny band of wanderers
stepping forward into day
this valley fools the eye
We seem to be standing still
as earth revolves beneath us
and the sun burns hotter and higher
Even as the heavens rotate
to fulfill our fantasy that we
are still the center of it all

Now into the deep
as deep as promise demands
These oaths we make only to ourselves
to stand on a higher place
to perhaps experience the closer presence
of the unknown

But what brought us here?
Why do we return now
Seeking something we lost in the past?

But here in this valley of light
It lies beyond
our understanding
and irrelevant
in marigolds
and the craggy faces
of the great rocks