Creating the World<\/p>\n
By<\/p>\n
Jennifer Angelina Petro<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Most of us know how<\/p>\n
The world around us<\/p>\n
Helps shape us\u2014<\/p>\n
Our morals, likes<\/p>\n
And dislikes, ways of seeing,<\/p>\n
How we listen, and to whom.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
For the sake of this poem, however,<\/p>\n
I am not just referring to the world<\/p>\n
As society and culture,<\/p>\n
And the morays we absorb<\/p>\n
So easily and release so stubbornly.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
I am speaking of the air,<\/p>\n
The world-forces of creation,<\/p>\n
How we are born into movement,<\/p>\n
And how the boundaries<\/p>\n
Of skin and bone are sung<\/p>\n
Into form as we live, move,<\/p>\n
And have our being in the world,<\/p>\n
Literally sculpted as we go<\/p>\n
By the responsive hands of space.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Now, here, as you move,<\/p>\n
As you get up from your chair<\/p>\n
To walk across the room,<\/p>\n
As you go to dress, or eat,<\/p>\n
Or kneel in prayer,<\/p>\n
As you reach out to a lover<\/p>\n
Or to pick up an infant,<\/p>\n
Or hand the cashier your change,<\/p>\n
Or receive an embrace,<\/p>\n
Know, now, here, you<\/p>\n
Are sculpting the world.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The very space you move<\/p>\n
Within-to-with, you shape\u2014<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The air, the back space<\/p>\n
And the many little circles<\/p>\n
And planes you walk this day\u2014<\/p>\n
Become embodying language;<\/p>\n
Your movements create<\/p>\n
Form and living paintings<\/p>\n
In space and time and breath,<\/p>\n
The world responds<\/p>\n
To your every movement,<\/p>\n
Your every touch, and push;<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
You unfold and color the world–<\/p>\n
As you propel forward\u2014<\/p>\n
The way parts and blooms around you<\/p>\n
As if you were swimming<\/p>\n
In a sea of impressionable air\u2014<\/p>\n
Because you are.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
As you live through-with<\/p>\n
This day, delineating your space,<\/p>\n
Open your movements\u2014<\/p>\n
Your arms and the myriad<\/p>\n
Of little dances you do,<\/p>\n
Widen your gestures, welcome<\/p>\n
And invite, give and receive,<\/p>\n
Describe space with grace and purpose\u2014<\/p>\n
Adorn the world<\/p>\n
With you.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n