! ! The Guru Is Not Other: A Metaphysical Proposition Poem by Michael Shepherd

It was his distance, that at first brought awe:
so great, so perfect, so ideal.. so far…
so distance humbles, brings humility;
the beauty of his feet, on earth we share;

and then, as if upon a flat-race turf,
the barriers built.. as if there long ago;
he, further over hedge and gate and brook;
and I, but wilful weakness, wailing ‘woe’..

until at last I sought him as a friend;
to meet within the heart we truly share;
surrendered distance, consciousness, and time:
asked nothing; difference thrown into the air;

I care not now, for pronouns ‘he’ and ‘me’;
his eye, my I; ourselves one self to be.

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Dedicated to the one who asked.