A Great Stone, Towering ... A Poem

A great stone, towering, thick, immense,

stands in our way, implacable.  Nothing

can be done.  We cannot climb over

or around.  A high, huge mass of stone hewn

by life and death, necessity and God.

It is Reality.  Immoveable,

immutable.  A great cube, a boulder.

Nature constructs it, but so, too, does man.

It is the earth, cosmos, society,

masked by smiles, gracious glaze of soil and trees,

distant stars; a cup, a glass, an apple,

peach, refrigerator.  It is the chair

and bed we daily sit and sleep upon.

It is being, belief, substance, habit,

entity.  It will not be moved.  No matter

what we do, this mammoth, monstrous stone, this rock,

is ever blocking.  Though we may see this

massive stone as merely untoward event

that brings us down...ranting wind and thunder,

lightning flame in boasting force and power...

insistent, humble time is the subtle,

crushing silence of the stone...precisely

the size and magnitude of the universe.

Copyright by Don Gray