Creating the World
By
Jennifer Angelina Petro
Most of us know how
The world around us
Helps shape us—
Our morals, likes
And dislikes, ways of seeing,
How we listen, and to whom.
For the sake of this poem, however,
I am not just referring to the world
As society and culture,
And the morays we absorb
So easily and release so stubbornly.
I am speaking of the air,
The world-forces of creation,
How we are born into movement,
And how the boundaries
Of skin and bone are sung
Into form as we live, move,
And have our being in the world,
Literally sculpted as we go
By the responsive hands of space.
Now, here, as you move,
As you get up from your chair
To walk across the room,
As you go to dress, or eat,
Or kneel in prayer,
As you reach out to a lover
Or to pick up an infant,
Or hand the cashier your change,
Or receive an embrace,
Know, now, here, you
Are sculpting the world.
The very space you move
Within-to-with, you shape—
The air, the back space
And the many little circles
And planes you walk this day—
Become embodying language;
Your movements create
Form and living paintings
In space and time and breath,
The world responds
To your every movement,
Your every touch, and push;
You unfold and color the world–
As you propel forward—
The way parts and blooms around you
As if you were swimming
In a sea of impressionable air—
Because you are.
As you live through-with
This day, delineating your space,
Open your movements—
Your arms and the myriad
Of little dances you do,
Widen your gestures, welcome
And invite, give and receive,
Describe space with grace and purpose—
Adorn the world
With you.
All donations go to medical bills and groceries. Thank you. <3