press down

or lift up

by Roberto Lavidez

all life

is caught

in a

crossfire

lives

bound up

with each

other

in many and 

complex ways

the overwhelming

richness and

sadness of life

pressing down

or lifting up

on you

finding

meaning

that is

personally

authentic

by the

assembly

and synthesis

of the right

memories and

emotions

by rejecting

social hierarchies

and embracing

tolerance of

human

difference

or reflecting

the usual

fault lines of

what seemed

on the surface

a harmonious

celebration

of nature

experience

and the way

memory

interprets

the world

must be

more than

kaleidoscopic

sliding into

new meanings

and new worlds

as we cross

invisible

boundaries

before fading

into the dark

with all the

tradition of

human kindness

love and justice

and all the

constructions

of the human

imagination

a perpetual

flux of

balancing

the varied

principles

against

one another

because

none of

them is

absolute

like certain

wavelengths

of light

absorbed

and

reflected

through

a stained

glass

a buffer

between

the chaos

and the

deep

ordering

systems

of the world

of the mind

©robertolavidez2014