“The Touch” by Elizabeth Chapman
motion in motion
swirled turns of the air
bend straight lines
corrupt stillness
destination is
movement alive
with geometry
place but a placename
location a notion
no here and no there
inertia the illusion of
standing one’s ground
against progress when
progress is constant
every man all alone
in his mind on a path
every path a distortion
of spatial intelligence
measured by wishes
a traveler’s enigma
compelled by a force
not in need of consent
the momentum of
angular mechanics
a world whose inhabitants
ever observers inside
a perpetual motion
can never know joy
of a physically
fixed sense of place
and yet find themselves
cast as explorers
intent to gaze inwardly
eyes full of solitude
deep with discovery
learning their way
to the every last spot
of creation
the gifts of existence
that sprang from a touch
by the fingers of God
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“Yet it is in this loneliness that the deepest activities begin. It is here that you discover act without motion, labor that is profound repose, vision in obscurity, and, beyond all desire, a fulfillment whose limits extend to infinity.” – Thomas Merton
