Gathering Day
by Jeff Howard

As we become ready
for new ways of finding
ourselves, for new ways
of locating ourselves in the
local continuum that rings through,
we will find ourselves
in new rituals that remind us
we are not from somewhere else,
not parked here by an entity
from outside, but woven and held
in the fabric
of all that is

Rituals that remember
what came before
and what comes next

Because with time and effort,
an opportunity
to choose a path
that rings through
to the dusty reaches
of the furthest edge of being,
coming sideways into view of itself, here,
shining node in a vast shining net
that gives us a new way to live,
a new basis for being,
a way of remaining,
abiding

Pulled by ties that flow
through the searing cores of stars and
through icy orbits and
through glowing flows of lava and
through cool, damp winds flowing down
the faces of glaciers into
land thankful for both
embrace and release,
compression and inhalation

Premises:
1. We are born of this rocky water planet
2. And broader forces
3. Most of our current paths lead to oblivion
4. In ways that even now we are beginning to recognize
5. And in ways we do not yet glimpse but begin to sense
6. We push ourselves to a brink
7. Where more will be visible
8. Than we have been equipped to see
9. And will have no choice
10. But to look

As we become ready,
we will bless our ancestors
and this broad world will see
itself, taste
itself, feel
its own flesh in contact
and will rejoice
as we gather

Ritual of the curvature
by Jeff Howard

“the return of earth to itself in conscious reflection on itself”
– Thomas Berry

On a luminous May morning,
an organ stands on the open prairie,
lifting a new hymn to the high clouds
as birds wheel

Gathering,
torn by the strains,
we weep

Gathered,
lifted by the strains,
we whoop
and weep

– – – – –

What liturgy?

Write it, when you are able,
in the hues of emerging spring grasses,
in the scents of seventeen prairie flowers,
in the sound of where the rain lives

Write it, when you are able,
in the gesture of clouds and wind,
which return the organ’s refrain
in a vast, hushed sweep

Intone it, when you are able,
in the cadence of deepest memory
unfolding on a new day

– – – – –

The birds are nonchalant,
but the events of the morning
will enter hawk and swallow lore
about the birth of the world

~
Jeff Howard lives in the Columbia River valley by way of the Allegheny River valley, the Connecticut River valley, and valleys beyond. His work, which reflects a Buddhist perspective on the continuum of consciousness in an era of ecological-tailspin-amid-ecological-belonging, has appeared in The Fourth River, Amethyst Review, The Ecological Citizen, Consilience, The Thinking Republic, and Green Ink.

~
Artist Statement: My Buddhism-oriented poetry reflects my affinity with Dōgen, Thomas Berry, Joanna Macy, Brian Swimme, Gary Snyder, Will Adams, and other ecologically oriented contemplatives. In this work, I recognize Earth’s interpenetrating physical and biological systems as actual root and kin of our bodies and hence as an essential focal point for our understanding of the nature of consciousness. The work expresses the urgency of (re)integrating the human mind and human culture with the natural systems that generate and nourish them – and hints at the awe, gratitude, and responsibility that this path entails.

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Featured Image: Photo by Juri Noga, 2021.