A Live Poem

Convocation 4

Mine eyes have seen the glory of
some high school chemistry and know
that everything is made of atoms
and inspired by quantum physics.
Life is not a carbon-based
reality but something all
around us. Woods alive! And rocks
alive! And even plastic that’s
contorted by machines alive!
Beyond the buildings and the roads,
the cultures and the businesses,
the homes and gardens, chairs and tables,
every single name we have
for everything beneath the sun
and stars, we are alive! Have always
been alive! Will always be alive!
There’s nothing but alive! Our death
itself alive! And eagles soaring
overhead, alive, alive! Alive!

~Son Rivers 2007