Nature & Transcendence Poem by Michael Maxwell Steer

Be at one with nature.
Let its balance heal you -
nothing hurried, nothing wasted -
Life in all its ordinary splendour.

Be at one with the day -
growing, feeding, nurturing:
the vivid summer, the sparkling winter:
times for joy, times for reflexion.

Be at one with the night -
at rest, without anticipation -
sleep erasing tears and pain
in a velvet-coloured calm.

We are born: we die.
Be at one with that. Allow
the interval between to be
as wonderful as it naturally is.

The mystery of life
is bounded by the invisible
river of death; being and not being
a knife cutting the flow between

the quick and the dead - each conscious
minute a choice to live as light,
or fall back into darkness -
intention alone outliving ego.

Accepting that perfection
is a dynamic not a condition
frees us to follow the winding pathway
that leads -imperfectly- to self-acceptance.

Celebrate existence
by any name you wish.
Be at one with whatever
aspect of transcendence beckons.

O my heart - be at
one with the great heart, and so find the great key
that opens the door to the enchanted garden
that beckons toward your deepest dreams.


Written near this tree beside the river Wylye after taking dogs to the vet.23/06/2009
I subsequently set it to music for SSAA+harp and 4 years later composed a further setting as part of my acapella cycle Silent Witness
Find them at youtube.com/Maxwellsteer