Man Distills Nature Poem by Jan Freundschuh

Appreciation of Nature, as a 'raison d'etre'?
As the meaning of life?
Oh, please!
....The seasons turn....
....I'll feed the daisies....
....When I'm buried....
How inspiring.
(Kill me now!)

Nature is varied,
And, it is awe-inspiring,
(As the crash of two trains
Hitting straight on.)
Power in itself
Does not meaning give.

Nor the loveliness of Nature,
Colorful, or moody;
Mere women's fashion,
Not a thing to live for.
No,
Nature is not itself an essence
That will sustain our hearts,

But when we 'deify' nature,
Call her Mother,
Our Beloved,
Here we peer behind the curtain
To see the Sacredness....
(Ground, trees, seas.....)
By naming her our Mother
We summon the 'Ideal'
That interpenetrates the mundane
With 'Intelligent Blueprint'.

There was Intelligence on Planet Earth
Long before Man's advent,
But the Intelligence was of a finer substance,
Orchestrating from afar,
Species were 'intelligent,
Each animal a kind of 'drone',
But that was before Man entered the picture
And individuality was born.

Man is the one who walks consciously
With his feet upon the concrete
All the while reading the headlines
....In the clouds.

What do I read in these headlines?

That man is not really 'all here'
We are partially 'elsewhere'
As Wordsworth told us....
....'Trailing clouds of glory',

But we are taught our limited repertoire
-the piano's three notes on the left-
This range goes from 'bad',
Through 'normal'......to 'good'.

But what of the whole piano......?
Can we step back to notice the piano?
Must we only play
Low 'A', 'A sharp', and 'B'?
Simply banging out these three vibrations
Does not music make.

Man was made for Ideals
That interpenetrate our biology.

Sing praises to this planet,
-'Wine, Women, and Song'-
And to mental explorations.....

But most important, let the 'Sacred',
...Call it magic....
Mother Nature.....God....
Call it Ideals....call it Higher Knowledge....
...This, the plane where we belong.















I have been contemplating the difference between Nature, 'red in tooth and claw', and Mother Nature.....which has a different energy.

To the animal lovers, of which I am one, of course I think that pets have individuality, .... because they interact with individual people, individuality is stimulated. Many animals that do not interact with man, probably luxuriate in a lovely 'species' experience, closer to the consciousness of a young child, or even a fetus in utero. To experience individuality may be more a matter of the pain of hitting up against something that the species has not provided a readiness for. Not necessarily a happy experience. Individuality may be another word for, 'shocked into consciousness by things going wrong'.

I think this poem is reflective of my background in the Waldorf School....a tribute of sorts to Rudolf Steiner....the mystical philosopher.