The Hum of It All

Hello friends, sometimes the world seems too much with us, as the saying goes. Television, cable services, social media, even old-fashioned magazines and newspapers threaten to drown us in information. There’s no real solution, of course; the world will keep spinning. However, we do need to acknowledge that we can’t control everything, much less the flood of information. Here by the banks of the Oconee, I have the daily opportunity to slow down: not just due to the natural changes of age but to the rhythms of life by the river. Here is the title poem of my third book,  “The Hum of It All,” which is also included in my new collection of new and selected poems, Interbeing. This new book is now available on Amazon, from the publisher Wipf & Stock online, and here on my website through PayPal, if you’re so inclined to purchase a copy. Thanks, Gene

“The Hum of It All”

Medieval nuns like Mechthild of Magdeburg
and Julian of Norwich kept cats
in their chilly anchoress cells
to ward off mice, they say,
but I think their felines cuddled them
at night in divine embrace, purring them
into contemplative union and sleep.

So I find it with Siamese Max,
a curmudgeonly sixteen who gives
his brother Tony the fish-eye,
yet the old guy with wonderful purr
is a religious whiz by ignoring
stale theology to plunge into core sound,
drawing me toward the source and sleep.

Lately I’ve heard that cosmic hum
from my hummingbirds hovering
with patience for my elderly pace
as I replace their bottle of nectar.
They carry the sound of all sounds
even when silent to our weak hearing.

Such meditation is not solipsism, withdrawal
into cozy corners, the world be damned.
It gives us time to slow down, slow walk,
slow eat with monk Thich Nhat Hanh,
to let things penetrate our subtle defenses.

It gives us time to feel deeply the sorrow
and suffering of child soldiers made to tie
bombs around their waists, of girls sold
into slavery, and of those starved
and maimed in continuous war.

It’s all part of the greater hum.
I heard it again today in a chorus of cicadas.