Contributor: Reed Venrick

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Go to nature's place
go where nothing's been invented
by the hand or mind of human
no power lines, no paved roads
no soda cans or plastic bags
no cars or tractors or planes or trains

go where earth was and will be
after humans have passed
and flown on to another planet
or another dimension space

go where your shadow stands
lean as the bamboo, swim naked
in the sea, or ride a horse bareback
while wearing, if you must, a pig's skin
put aside the the clothes squeezed
from sweaty shops

or just lean against a sturdy oak
and watch the show of passing clouds
the first meditation of evolving minds
before the full moon was created

feel the knotty log that Cicero sat
tasting an apricot and red wine
feel the same fire that Di Vinci
warmed his fingers before he picked
up the brush and began

hear the breeze whine in the pines
and the flutter of maple leaves
as Kant did on his daily walk

swim in the water as easily
as Jesus floated in the Dead Sea
and catch a fish as tasty as sushi is

and remember what we always knew
we are they, they are we
when the senses are perceiving
we'll find again time and space
the greatest illusions

after all, we don't have to die
to find eternity in a universal space--
there it is a natural place.


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R Venrick lives in Florida,
writes and photographs
abstracted nature.