qarrtsiluni

by Jeff Klooger

If life is this easy, why haven’t we lived
until now? With each breath
the body expands, and we
expand with it, from the untouchable
core of our unchanging self
to unreachable limits
of compassion.

The rhythm is so simple
a child could learn it. It sings to us
and we sing back, a tune of air,
expelling strife and sorrow, inhaling
peace and light.

If tears come, they are a blessing,
a farewell to demons we once loved
but now no longer care for.
Laughter, too, may surprise us, announcing
joy we did not know we had.

In silence, we find an end to searching.
At home in the moment,
we know that here and now
nothing is missing, everything
is just as it is.

If we are not
what we expected to be
we are at last
enough
even for ourselves.

Music: Prem Rawat Maharaji’s Wordcortado (Open Source Audio collection at Internet Archive)
Download the MP3

Jeff Klooger’s poetry has been published in his native Australia and internationally. Recently his work has appeared in Eureka Street, The Daedalus Review, TEXT, Numinous, The Argotist Online, The Stinging Fly, Harvest, dotdotdash, and Otoliths. His other interests are music and philosophy. His book on the ideas of the Greek-French philosopher Cornelius Castoriadis was published in 2009.