Our Humanity
a call
What we belong to.
What we can point to
out there; around us.
And what a singular gift.
Our innate sentience.
Deeper humanness.
Shared with eight billion
other souls, and bodies.
What we can rise to,
in here; if and when
we choose to, or,
are moved to.
Summon the truer
and fuller humanity
that ~ whether clearly
or obscurely ~ resides,
so surely, within
each of us; whether
it’s eager or reticent,
lost or longed for;
sleeping, or awakening.
I remember ceremonies
that began in the dark
of a church or a country field.
A first candle being lit,
from a source.
And from that first lighting,
to the other
held by the person beside.
Then each holder in turn
letting their flame light
the next, and next,
until all were aglow.
Until we soon
cascadingly formed
one immense body of light;
a bonfire of human-kindled kind.
Reflecting spirits; reflected in eyes.
Beaconing a remembering out;
sending a hope-filled illumination out
into the Unseen and Unknown.
The same way the flame of
your humanity and mine,
instead of flickering alone,
can be lit, fed, combined,
and enlarged ~ can join
the wicks, the rising spirits,
of all those who,
from where we stand,
we cannot see or know
but can feel; in the center
of our chests.
Enough to create
a great forest,
a great sea, family,
of uniting, igniting humanity;
a shared lightrise;
the greatest that people
of any time in history
or memory
have ever known.
A conscious joining,
generous emanating,
of human light,
benevolent light.
That brings wanted,
beyond-needed solace,
strength, and wordless
togetherness forth,
to soothe the heart
and smooth the future
of the trembling world.
Colin Goedecke
Weekapaug, Rhode Island
January 2021
