(Gravity In Its Absoluteness)

Gravity in its absoluteness

Takes hold of even the smallest thing

And draws it toward the sudden center of the world

Each thing

Is held in place like stone whose mass

Kisses the earth, 

Seeking to cling to something larger than itself.

Only we, in our pretension, keep moving

After some idle freedom.

Surrender to the weight of reality,

To Earth’s knowing

Untie the knot

Raveled with every step in all our confusion.

As children of Earth we begin again

Our lesson to understand

The power of stillness

And not to move so much.

Things teach us to fall like a stone

And come to rest.

Even a young bird must fall before it can fly,
For all things want to take wing
And all things, disquiet, want to find rest.
Yet motion and stillness, stillness and motion
Are ultimately one substance.