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.