Because You Keep Asking

for V.O.G. and all those who are asking

The cosmos is within us. 
We are made of star-stuff. 
We are a way for the universe to know itself.

			— Carl Sagan

What if now, 
	after you have run all your marathons
	after doing all the world-shaping
	all the emotional life-changing
	all the mental heavy-lifting
	you are going to do

— because, it seems, the time for all that is behind you…

What if the reason you are still here
now
	in the far reaches of age
	in the enfrailing body
	in the encroaching vulnerability 
	in the slipperiness of forgetting
is to witness?

Witness 
what only you can witness
	from the far reaches of experience
	from the far reaches of the self 
	you have come to know yourself to be

And to feel
that which is being witnessed
in a way that
no one else who is here
now
on Earth
can

To witness
Not just to witness
No, this is no small thing, to witness
	beloveds dying
	civil society unraveling
	greed threatening biodiversity 
	insanity threatening planetary survival
No, this is not some softened way to pass the time
It requires a level of grounded tenacity not everyone has managed to attain
	
What if the reason you are here
is not about what hoops you can still jump through
	or what you are capable of
	or whether fire fills your belly
	or about you at all? 
(Nothing personal) 

What if every thought and feeling you have 
	regardless of whether you
	write it in a poem
	say it out loud
	tell a soul
	or even remember it
is critically important to the edification of the universe?

in the way you encounter each changing moment
in the way your skin feels
in the way your belly vibrates
in the way your heart aches
in the way your mind is constantly, silently, unconsciously
exchanging information 
with things invisible and mysterious

in perfect timing
		with the Grand Symphony 
						of All That Is

What if the universe desperately needs 
what only those few 
who have reached this rarified space that you occupy
can provide?

You may have noticed that many of us are otherwise distracted
running our marathons
	with technology
	with politics
	with success and failure
	with flashy, shiny things
	with loud, fast things
	with sexy, vacant things
And you think your capacities are limited?!

Yesterday we were talking about how one word can change so much meaning:

Why am I here?
Why am I still here? 

I’m just here
I’m here

This is no becoming insignificant
This is no diminishment
This is seeing
	feeling
	grieving
	raging
This is loneliness
	sadness
	confusion
	understanding 
	astonishment 
	ineffable love
	ineffable pain
	revelation
	gratitude

What if you don’t need to write another poem
because you are now
the poem?

				— Purple Hazel Green
			        Summer Solstice 2025