I ... entered the poem of life, whose purpose is ... simply to witness the beauties of the world, to discover the many forms that love can take. (Barabara Blackman in 'Glass After Glass')

These poems are works in progress and may be updated without notice. Nevertheless copyright applies to all writings here and all photos (which are either my own or used with permission). Thank you for your comments. I read and appreciate them all, and reply here to specific points that seem to need it — or as I have the leisure. Otherwise I reciprocate by reading and commenting on your blog posts as much as possible.

6 April 2014

The Discovery of Light

Light, light, so much light!
Suddenly, at the end of the slow process,
enormous brightness everywhere.
And everywhere became larger.

I didn't have words, and scarcely thought.
But I had perception. I perceived
bedazzlement and my body's reaction.
Now I would call it shock.

Noise, too, was everywhere, huge,
around and through me. I had, you see,
no sense of a separate self. I
was the everywhere, with no edges.

I began to distinguish voices.
"She," they kept repeating, and somehow
I knew that "She" was me. So began
the experience of limits.

In every direction, whiteness — which had 
angles and corners. Heads and bodies
disappeared behind what I now see as walls;
but then I had no names, no concepts.

Movement was happening. Noses and chins,
cheeks and mouths and eyes, which I did not then
know or understand, moved close and away.
There was a sense of speed, of bustling.

And I felt myself moved (not fast, not a lot).
I was taken and wrapped, moved further from
a part of the everything, a dim lump
that I knew I needed — my exhausted mother.

And all the time, startled by light, I kept looking.
I began to experience my mind’s reaction too,
which now I identify as awakening
curiosity, even a beginning of wonder.

April PAD Challenge, day 5: A discovery poem

Submitted for Poets United's Poetry Pantry #205

17 comments:

  1. The most important moment in all of life...How overwhelming it must be. How fascinating it would be to have the opportunity to perceive and recall. You do a very nice job here of stoking the imagination. And you make an interesting point about experiencing 'limits,' even at the genesis.
    Steve K.

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  2. Wow, this must have been quite an experience, Rosemary. You have really described this wonderfully.

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  3. when perception becomes thought, we really have arrived. A generation later it may become art.

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  4. "I was the everywhere, with no edges". This is quite an amazing line. Intriguing write about the beginnings of our limited earth-bound awareness, coming from the boundary-less ether. Cool idea for a poem.

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  5. fascinating experience....and the awakening to light....has many connotations from ideas, to spiritual reality...vivid...and intense...almost dream like....

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  6. Great rendering of a moment of which we have so few recollections!

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  7. that sounds fascinating indeed...becoming aware of things and to feel how the mind opens up...nice

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  8. I feel like I had witnessed a birthing from the baby's point of view ~ Wonderful realization of light ~ A metaphor which signals new beginning ~

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  9. light- definig truth and goodness and love and knowledge everywhere... beautiful verses!!

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  10. I wish I could remember. How vivid, how stranger in a strange land, what an amazing awakening you describe, Light most of all. Wow.

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  11. This made me look through the eyes of a newborn baby just looking into the lights of the labor room for the first time. Lights are fantastic and hopeful.

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  12. You have this completely right, Rosemary. What a wonderful discovery you have had of self & beyond. I could just imagine this being read in a calm, distilled tone almost whispering but not too rushed, with a bit excitement, joy, curiosity, a bit of fear (maybe)--- I am lucky to have witnessed all of these through your words, Rosemary. Thank you!

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  13. an experience of a lifetime...it's good that you've found wonderful words to describe your awakening....

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  14. That is such a golden moment... though at first I actually read it as the awakening from an accident... Myself I have vague recollections from when I was around 3 years old of a self awakening and wondering how my mind came to be... I saw myself flying through space in those recollections..

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  15. This was an amazing poem filled with brilliant light and awareness..a state of new consciousness..

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