The prayer flows out of the treesIt is the trees, into the trees
The bark, the branches, the veins of the leaf
It soaks into the sky, and sinks into earth
Alms, alms, the offering manifests in all, to all, as all
It echoes in me through the name
Lifted by my breath to accompany creation
What is there to seek?
Thought provoking. Gracias.
ReplyDeletethat is beautiful! thank you. very appropriate for summer out here.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the kind words. I was recently asked about this poem when I reposted it somewhere else, so be warned that I am about to post my own deconstruction of the poem. It's a bit like hearing a song, finding your own resonance with it, then hearing what the people who wrote and performed the music actually had in mind when they were putting the song together. If you'd rather not know, stop reading...
ReplyDelete...NOW.
Consider the first two lines:
The prayer flows out of the trees
It is the trees, into the trees
First we read that the prayer is coming out of the trees. This is in a sense figurative as trees do not posses lungs or vocal chords and cannot actually say prayers. So what is the symbolism representing? Hang on to that question for a moment. The next phrase says "it is the trees". The prayer and the trees are one and the same. Then we go to "into the trees". So the prayer that was flowing out and that is the trees is also flowing into the trees. Consider that. "It" is flowing out of the trees, "it" is the trees, "it" is flowing into the trees. So "it" is the inspiration (potential) for and substance of the trees but it is clearly more than that as "it" flows from/to the trees from/to all other phenomena as well, implying that "it" is the inspiritation (potential) for and substance of all phenomena:
The bark, the branches, the veins of the leaf
It soaks into the sky, and sinks into earth
That meaning of this symbolism (of source and substance) is then explicitly revealed and reaffirmed:
Alms, alms, the offering manifests in all, to all, as all
At this point it is worth coming back to the question on hold - what is the prayer? Is it an actual prayer, or is it a placeholder for a concept beyond words - something that manifests "in all, to all, as all"?
It echoes in me through the name
Here we have "it", whatever "it" is, echoing through a person as "the name". This ineffable source and substance of existence has now been referred to as the prayer, the alms, and now "the name". The first two words are holy words, suggesting something beyond ordinary comprehension. The idea that it now echoes as "the name" is a confirmation that such labels are arbitrary. Maybe in someone else's heart it would have echoed as something else. Also, by calling it "the name", it leaves one to conjure up what name the reader might give - Tao, Shunyata, God, Jesus, Amitabha, Allah?
Lifted by my breath to accompany creation
Here creation is not a fixed singular event in the remote past, it is a perpetual ongoing process unfolding and encompassing all things. This can be inferred because of the idea present from the first half of the poem that the source and substance are different aspects of the same "it", which has variously called "the prayer", "alms", and "the name" and which is actively flowing through and as all phenomena. So here the person in the poem is affirming and celebrating this realization and awareness by reciting "the name".
What is there to seek?
The person in the poem has realized that the source of existence is not truly separate from existence itself - so while some may only see the invidual phenomena as separate things (the trees, the leaves, the branches, the earth, the sky), the person in the poem sees that they are linked and that they arise together from the same source. This source is no longer hidden but shines forth in all of creation. Hence, the person realizes that "it" has been hiding in plain sight all along. That begs the question which is then asked.