Outtakes: One and Many

                                   

   Outtake from "Wanting Not to Want"

The One and the Many

Raised in the Epic West 
Heroes is what we do best. 
Plenty of exemplars available, 
But are their legends scalable?

One body, one hero, one poet, one pilot 
Navigating the starry frontier;
One pilgrim, one sinner, one witch, one redeemer 
Signing to Heaven the All’s Clear;
One schemer, one bruiser, one user, one dreamer 
Seeking El Dorado in a mining camp;
One banker, one dealer, one winner, one loser, 
Hopping a train with a fellow tramp:

Odyssey times a hundred?
Sir Lancelot times hundreds more? 

Multiply the quests and the journeys, 
The grails and the tourneys,
Multiply the wars.

Our deeds may be civil, 
Our creeds may be kind, 
But when we exponentiate 
The Human Form Divine:

A clash of needs, desires, drives – 
Every hero striving to live; 

Wanting not just a living,
But living out loud:

To live well and richly, 
To outpace the crowd.

So let us give Age its dignity
And Merry Youth its due.
Let us live well upon the good Earth, 
And never thwart new life or birth.

With our earthly bodies 
Let’s make a start:
Let us breathe and bend 
And open our hearts

And let us remember, 
Whatever we do ––
That scores, and more, 
Hundreds and thousands, 
Millions and billions
On the one Earth –– 
Are doing it too.