Attending To Mundane Things

Originally posted 4/27/2009.

Nothing against
palmistry and scrying crystals,
Tarot cards and Zodiac.
All serve the purpose.
It’s their modern monopoly
on divination
that’s troubling.

People act if they couldn’t
find peace and clarity
in the random jumble
of socks in a drawer
or the shadows of skyscrapers 
knifing across downtown streets 
if they tried
when every jammed closet
is a cathedral if you know 
how to pray in it. 

Whenever the ancients and their arts
are called upon
to tell us where we’re heading, 
they must ask themselves,

who are these frightened people
who do not understand how to make do
with what’s right under their noses, cobbling together
a peephole into time from whatever is close at hand?

All we did 
to meet our God 
was add a little attention 
to the mundane.  

Look into our own hands, pick a rock
from the ground and stare into it,
notice a truth when we gambled, 
ask the sky a question and listen.

All we did to meet God
was look for God,
trusting that
we wouldn’t have to look far.