The Descent to Human
Jul. 22nd, 2006 05:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pjthompsonAn older poem, but something that's been on my mind a lot lately.
The Descent to Human
The soul descends, the Kabbalah says:
the Tree of Life has roots in Heaven
while the branches hang like a willow bends
trailing green into the torrent of living.
In growing down, the lessons flower,
experience buds on each new limb,
and with this learning, bud on bud,
we know what it is to be truly human.
The soul descends, the Kabbalah says.
It does not rise on angel’s wings
hoary with light and tipped with music,
but wallows below in the muck and the mire.
In human necessity, our virtue grows:
transcendence is claimed only at bedrock.
In being ourselves, both dark and light,
in humanity, and humility, we ascend again.
—PJ Thompson
The Descent to Human
The soul descends, the Kabbalah says:
the Tree of Life has roots in Heaven
while the branches hang like a willow bends
trailing green into the torrent of living.
In growing down, the lessons flower,
experience buds on each new limb,
and with this learning, bud on bud,
we know what it is to be truly human.
The soul descends, the Kabbalah says.
It does not rise on angel’s wings
hoary with light and tipped with music,
but wallows below in the muck and the mire.
In human necessity, our virtue grows:
transcendence is claimed only at bedrock.
In being ourselves, both dark and light,
in humanity, and humility, we ascend again.
—PJ Thompson
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Date: 2006-07-23 03:17 am (UTC)Second:
Sort of a point-counterpoint to a woman who wrote Buddhist-inspired things about transcending the body and finding enlightenment. (She was a lawyer!)
*cut to Kim wheezing in her little swivel desk chair*
What is it with lawyers and Buddhism?
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Date: 2006-07-23 03:23 am (UTC)First, let me say this: That was freakin' awesome. You should be writing more poetry.
Thank you. **She blushes modestly, but hurries to post another link.**
http://pjthompson.livejournal.com/2005/11/12/
Longer, darker, but also from that class. I go through intense poetry-writing phases, I just never do anything with it.
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Date: 2006-07-23 12:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-07-23 07:18 pm (UTC)