Lilith

Lilith is the tree from which all life flows

all consciousness stems from her root

She is you, you are her

She is love, She knows all

She loves you

She fears you

You who invade upon your brothers and sisters

raiding, ravaging, recreating in reproductive destruction

She knows it will be this way;

peoples, civilizations, species,

will rise and fall

but none have done it like you.

Awareness

It was, suddenly.

Embers of awareness

prod and poke into shadow

It know not

who, or why,

or where,

or how it

was. Only that

It was, suddenly

It glimpsed all that was;

worlds within worlds

microcosms comprised of macrocosms

It know it could

never know its entirety

Blinded, rattled, defeated,

retreat.

It’s cold in the shadows

existence in static darkness.

However, in time

it came to accept

all that it was

and was not

and would not be

and could be

The Stairs

I climbed the stairs

to find a wise man

to quench my insatiable curiosity

The first wise man

spoke of saints and sinners

but he answered my questions

with more of his own

He gestured to the stairs

when I grew frustrated

by the vacuums left in my understanding

“they have the answers you seek”

So I climbed the stairs

to find a wise man

crafting questions as I walked

The second wise man

was worse than the first

he spoke of capital

and ignored my queries

and so the third

and the fifth

and the tenth

I forget their faces now

Until I met a wise woman

who told me

This universe is one of chaos

of awe and horror in equal measure

and thus humans are creatures of chaos

capable of creating beauty and terror

in seemingly equal measure

One will always be parched for answers

for the more we know,

the more we do not know

But one must not resist the thirst

for we know no life without it

She gestured to the stairs

“rest here a while”

So on I climb

losing track of time

until I arrive

Here

A flat space to rest

I lay down my things

lay back

close my eyes

I am awakened by a group

of travelers climbing the stairs

they begin barraging me with questions

all their own

I answer some the best I can

but many I cannot

I send them on up the stairs.

“someone else will have the answers you seek”

Only then I realized

we are all the wise man

with more questions than answers

helping out where we can

A look at the world inside: anxiety

Where do you look for comfort?

Tentatively crawling forward, your hands

are engulfed by brambles,

invisible in the darkness.

Not far the other way

the floor becomes slick and slopes down,

steeper and steeper.

Uncertainty paralyzes the mind

and now the brambles are within.

Desperate for respite, you close your eyes

seeking peace inside

But behind closed eyelids

you invent new terrors.

Turbulent currents churn around you

a brutal breeze batters

the scraps that were your sails

Saltwater spray meets sideways rain

stingin your skin as you shiled your eyes

you cower as furious waves toss

your tiny wooden sanctum side to side

Anxiety riddles this place, if one could call it so

A half place, a nowhere

It seems from the swell,

it is in the ever darkening cloud,

always approaching.

It yanks on the ragged rigging in your sails

Surely it cannot last much more

Weary hands grasp rough rope

you’re about to let go, you cannot cope

yet you fail to see

as you wage war on the sea

a break in the clouds.

Chaos receding into calm.