Human to Human

This poem moves me. I first learned of it in my early Berkana days (thx Meg). And every now and then it cycles back to me. It comes knocking at the door of my consciousness, asking me to come out and play.

I love the digging in of this poem. I also love the invitation to dig in to what isn’t the norm. To do the work. But also to do the mystery.

Enjoy.

To Be Of Use
Marge Piercy

The people I love the best
jump into work head first
without dallying in the shallows
and swim off with sure strokes almost out of sight.
They seem to become natives of that element,
the black sleek heads of seals
bouncing like half-submerged balls.

I love people who harness themselves, an ox to a heavy cart,
who pull like water buffalo, with massive patience,
who strain in the mud and the muck to move things forward,
who do what has to be done, again and again.

I want to be with people who submerge
in the task, who go into the fields to harvest
and work in a row and pass the bags along,
who are not parlor generals and field deserters
but move in a common rhythm
when the food must come in or the fire be put out.

The work of the world is common as mud.
Botched, it smears the hands, crumbles to dust.
But the thing worth doing well done
has a shape that satisfies, clean and evident.
Greek amphoras for wine or oil,
Hopi vases that held corn, are put in museums
but you know they were made to be used.
The pitcher cries for water to carry
and a person for work that is real.

That’s the Wasatch Mountains over there. It’s the east side of this high desert valley in Salt Lake County.

I just love the light on it, from a setting sun over the Oquirrh Mountains, from the west side of the valley, lighting not the valley but the mountain tips.

The sky is pretty cool too.

From a recent walk, Dana and I settling back to home.

I’m so enjoying this memoir from Bruce Springsteen, Born to Run. I’m listening — I like to hear his voice.

This paragraph that describes putting the E Street Band together, was one that I went back to several times.

Makes a lot of sense for Circle and other good group process too! It helps me to understand the goodness in Becoming & Belonging.

“The primary math of the real world is one and one equals two. The laymen (as, often, do I) swings that every day. He goes to the job, does his work, pays his bills and comes home. One plus one equals two. It keeps the world spinning. But artists, musicians, con men, poets, mystics and such are paid to turn that math on its head, to rub two sticks together and bring forth fire. Everybody performs this alchemy somewhere in their life, but it’s hard to hold on to and easy to forget. People don’t come to rock shows to learn something. The come to be reminded of something they already know and feel deep down in their gut. That when the world is at it’s best, when we are at our best, when life feels fullest, one and one equals three. It’s the essential equation of love, art, rock ‘n’ roll and rock ‘n’ roll bands. It’s the reason the universe will never be fully comprehensible, love will continue to be ecstatic, confounding, and true rock ‘n’ roll will never die.”