Below Our Strangeness

I believe we are all connected at the deepest and most elemental level and that experience and circumstance manipulate us away from our better selves. This poem speaks of that place.

My soul tells me, we were
all broken from the same name --
less heart, and every living thing
wakes with a piece of that original
heart aching its way into blossom.
This is why we know each other
below our strangeness, why when
we fall, we lift each other, or when
in pain, we hold each other, why
when sudden with joy, we dance
together. Life is the many pieces
of that great heart loving itself
back together.

A Question to Walk With: What is your fundamental view of human nature and life? Do you feel we are self-contained life forms, only interested in self-preservation? Or do you feel we are interconnected beings that need relationship to survive and thrive? How does your fundamental view inform the life decisions you make?

For more Poetry for the Soul, click here.

For more by Mark Nepo, click here.