The more generous you are the wider the ripples
produced by your simple dropping of stones.
You bring your child to the pond and collect
a few gifts ground down by the centuries
for human fingers to manage. You listen together
to birdsong and then begin the pedagogy
of difference rather than this ability to take
the weight of a small mortality and defy gravity.
The attempt to be invulnerable is to build
a house on sand. Vulnerability is the foundation
upon which we build, find shelter,
the nourishment needed to walk the hero’s path.
Genius loci is finding oneself in the presence
of protective spirit, the whisper of waves
as you walk along the shore constantly looking
for a message in a bottle. Aladdin
could go to magical places, but needed
a magic carpet woven by the master,
could fulfill his greatest desires only
by asking the genius residing in the lamp.
Pick up the conch shell or any
orchestra pit large enough to fit
into the space of your hand, lift it
to your ear and listen until you recognize
the shape of your own small, essential, voice
in harmony with the breath of the ancient chorus.
Steve Nolan is a retired military officer and mental health professional. He has published in numerous journals and his poetry was featured on National Public Radio, Morning Edition, upon his return from Afghanistan. He is the author of “Go Deep,” “Base Camp,” and “American Carnage, An Officer’s Duty to Warn.” He resides in Newtown.
Poet’s Corner is curated by Bucks County Poet Laureate Tom Mallouk and supported by a grant to the Bucks County Herald Foundation made possible by Marv and Dee Ann Woodall.
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