Above Everything
A Collage Poem
By
Jennifer Angelina Petro
(Using words and phrases both of my own
and from the book, “How to Study,” by Arthur Kornhause, pub. 1924)
Above everything
shift your position
from time to time.
Picture yourself
clearly. Raise questions.
You might simply ask
yourself: “What is the essence
of what I want?”
Talk to yourself,
think around, draw
diagrams, feel
the intensity
of your desire.
What does this
light throw,
and on what?
Hold yourself to the work.
Your ability to play
is the important thing,
so is the gradual movement
towards the unexpected.
Be flexible enough
to make the necessary
revisions. Acknowledge
frankly the consequences.
There is no controlling
the world about us, there are
interferences and irritations,
there will be moments
of perplexity.
So then, discover
pleasures and fascinations,
become absorbed
in some joy. Be your own
secret door.
There will be
things left undone,
you might feel pressed
for time, but there will be
delicious idiosyncrasies
in your thinking
and learning
that will be oblivious
to everyone else
except you. And you might feel
wonderfully mischievous
and smile.
Be ready to believe in variations
and embellishments,
and possibilities of ever new
thrilling blessings rising
from your body.
Once you get yourself
well started, remember
bliss is viable, and
as you change patterns and ways
of self-recitations:
be clear about this:
wonder does wonders.
