Woke up to snow this morning and a new avalanche of news. Who can tell anymore what it means or if it matters that we sort through it? I ask myself that from time to time but I have to believe that it does and that it does matter that we try, and try to be – be what? kind? good? resisting?

I don’t know what will make a difference in the long run, but I can only keep trying and trying to keep up with the news and trying to let others know what’s going on. This morning I was wishing I could offload some of the horrible stuff in my head.

I suddenly wondered if this is how Eve felt, leaving the garden, her head now full of all of the world’s possibility but also full of knowing the goodness of the garden.

I want to remove
all the world’s ugliness from
my brain. my heart.
All these years looking
for the news that would fix things,
never reported.
I filled my head
with the news of the day
all deplorable
and still it came, that
firehose of never-ending
cruelty to all.
We were kind often
to each other, we did try
to keep love alive
Now my head is full
of human stupidity
and cruelty
whatever can be
imagined and slammed against
the cowering world
I know all about
the evil and mongering,
the lust for power
I know how I could
turn my eyes and ears away
toward the quiet
that I could listen
to whispering wind and trees
and live peacefully
If I could empty
even if I could empty
my sore heart and head
the knowledge of that
both of the time before this
and of this hard rock
how could I ever
turn away as if it
didn’t matter
This knowledge of good
which brought me to know all this
that happens here, now,
Knowing these evils
and the choices we’re given
and that all do choose
It is tiring
and I wonder if this is
how it felt for Eve
as the door closed
having within her the choice
the wanting to know
and knowing evil
and having known such beauty
to have made her thus
she left there knowing
what shining glory there was
in the same world
that she knew now.
Did she fight to remember?
Did she try to be kind again?