RAVEN’S REMEDY FOR DUALISTIC THINKING

Raven is rolling
a snail shell along the wall
in the patio:
Sisyphus horizontal?
No, he is meditating

on the physics of
forward movement, asking for
guidance to balance
this dark, retrograde moment
that we are tunneling through.

A big leaf flutters
down in front of the snail shell,
and slows Raven’s pace:
nature puts unexpected
obstacles to make us think?

Raven is not awed
by randomness in nature,
as his own nature
is alternating current:
turning despair into hope,

conflict into peace,
and stupidity into
a new consciousness.
He shoves the leaf from his path,
pushes the circle forward—

no longer a shell,
but a geometric force.
In the mobius
strip of his mind, all of the
dimensions is only one.


Note: Sisyphus, a Corinthian king, was, like Raven, a famous trickster. In Greek mythology one of his capers was catching and tying up Thanatos (Death). In the Underworld he was condemned to roll a large stone up a hill—from which it always rolled down again....