A Song in Praise of the Intersection

Here is a poem that I wrote for a class this week:

A Song in Praise of the Intersection

The Unity of One is the Unity of All
For we are similar you and I and he and she and it
Each joined to our ancestry, each joined to our kin, each joined to our species, each joined to our
beginning, and joined—inevitably—to our end.
Is that the same ancestry, the same kin, the same species, the same beginning, the same end
I know not.

Yet you and I and he and she and it we walk the same path
We traverse the same road
We travel the same journey
The journey to class to home to friends to family to market to restaurant to park
to an endless, infinite horizon of destinations.
None of us know where the other goes, none of us knows the other’s name, none of us knows anything about the other but that which is evident in the brief passage of time in which we live together,
In which we are connected, in which we are one, in which our paths intersect
In that moment what unites is great and what tears asunder not so great.
In that moment we are more similar that we are different.

Life is that moment, we are that moment, he she it is that moment.
The world, society, culture, family, kin, friends, religion, politics try to keep us in those other moments on the path when we are but distant points on the road, a goal, a speck on the horizon to meet before sundown.

This road, in these buildings, in these hallowed halls, in these offices, in these faces I see, in
these many faces I see, in these varied faces I see, in these richly diverse faces I see, is in
each of us.
Each of us knows our destination without knowing or caring the destination of others.
Each of us knows where our journey will lead us
Each of us wants to reach our goal whether or not the others reach theirs…

Yet what is this I see?
Two of you walk together, two of you are linked hand-in-hand with one another on the road.
This is what the world should be, life lived together, the unity in this moment will lead you
through life stronger and more determined than when walked alone.

What is that?
Five, six, eight, fifteen of you are walking together…
Talking, laughing, screaming, gesturing, moaning, sighing, breathing, living together.
Surely this is the meaning of life!
That we traverse together, life the great mysterious road on which we are distant, separate,
different things to one another…

NO! Life is meant to be lived with each of us knowing, caring, breathing, living, dying, with
those who know us, each of us knowing and caring each other.

Is your life hard you girl who walks alone?
I feel your pain, I care, I reach out to you, and ask your name, and feel your presence in my life, I
acknowledge your presence, I am what I say others should be, are you there with me?
Surely life is more meaningful when it is shared.

Yet there you are men in suits and women in skirts who are too busy to speak to one another
even though you seem to be connected in some way.
You travel in your herd through life not caring who else is out there as long as you reach your
destination
This is not what life is…there is no connectedness of life in your being, there is no connection
with those who travel the road with you.

The unity of you, lonely, solitary ones is the same unity I feel with all
For I realize that you and I and he and she and it are all the same
The similarities are too many to bear without knowing that the differences mean nothing.

Walk the same path
Oh, you and I and he and she and it, walk the same path
Traverse the same road
Travel the same journey
The journey to class to home to friends to family to market to restaurant to park
to an endless, infinite horizon of destinations.
It matters not where the other goes,
None of us knows the other’s name, none of us knows anything about the other but that which is
evident in the brief passage of time in which we live together,
In which we are connected, in which we are one, in which our paths intersect
In that moment what unites is great and what tears asunder not so great.
In that moment we are more similar that we are different.

In that moment is life.

-JCM