Work in Progress
“Do I contradict myself?
Very well then I contradict myself.
(I am large, I contain multitudes.)”
-- Walt Whitman
We want things in halves, easy to comprehend,
but it’s not that simple
when everything contains its own opposite.
It’s taken me a lifetime to discern
an iota of my confounding complexity.
No wonder I’ve been misunderstood
from whatever sundry corners of the Universe
took notice of me.
How can I blame them for being blind?
I who was witnessing myself most closely of all
barely knew who I was.
It takes eons to circle
from the circumference to the center.
The further in we get, the more difficult it becomes
to pinpoint exactly where we are on the spiral
of countless revolutions and revelations.
No matter how far we go,
the journey’s end remains elusive...
It takes many, many turns around
before we come to realize that incompletion
is an integral part of the Complete.
About this poem
“...Writing is a form of meditation for me. This poem came to me today [regarding the mystery of ourselves.]” - El Collie
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"Work in Progress" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 16 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/166663/work-in-progress>.
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