About becoming enlightened

Lots more folks are aiming to become more enlightened, more spiritual in the way they conduct their lives.  I worry about that being another way to become less connected to the day to day world and the people who inhabit it with us. Here is a poem from Jill Stein, a favorite of mine who doesn't publish much, because she doesn't want to for some reason or another.  But when she does, her poems are very worth reading. 

The way I know I’m not enlightened

I want to be specific.

Particulars appeal to me

in all their inconvenience.

For instance, I’d rather struggle

with my collapsing body with its poor design

than melt into the glory of the void

and lose my chance

to camp out on the bed beside you,

every night digging up

old cartoons, sitcoms themes,

Ipana toothpaste, Wagon Train,

Zydeco, Wagner, and Leslie Gore

its my party and I’ll cry if I want to...

resentfully succumbing to

that pull to sleep at 2 am.

 

Small comfort we’d be swirling

in that same cosmic soup,

two bubbles aglow in a vast scintillating sky.

Oh no, Its just too big out there.

I might not find you.

I'd rather bump against your separate incarnation

beside me in the darkness,

grumbling about your snoring,

a tugboat bringing me each morning

to the welcoming, familiar shore.

Jill Stein