Feeling Our Lives 1

I've always loved abstractions--the bigger the better--God, quantum mechanics, cosmology, whatever. I love pressing my mind up against these big abstractions. I once thought I had to understand and harmonize all these to be happy, free, and justified, and, more importantly, so life would have meaning. A psychologist I saw once said to me, "David, if you can feel your life, it will have meaning." Here's a poem that relates to feeling our lives:

Photo: Lake in Upper Peninsula of Michigan by M. David Orr 2004


Leaves

Throw off the shackles of night,
Breathe the free air clean.
Why do you make it all a fight
Instead of walking in the green
And down the paths of leaves?
Why not call on greater powers
Blowing in the breeze?
There is magic in the colors,
Browns and reds and oranges
That rot upon the ground.
They bring a sluggish poet to his knees,
Out of breath and waiting for a line or memory
To start the words within him
Swirling like these autumn leaves.

Copyright 2006 by M. David Orr