The Storm Is Over
By Benjamin Major
One morning following a huge storm
An ancient was walking alone
Along a mountain pass.
He was stopped by a shepherd
Who stood next to a shady tree
With his goats all about him
Each one looking around apprehensively.
The shepherd was about to open his mouth
When the ancient raised his hand
And spoke, calmly…
Wait, you need not speak,
I already see your problem here.
Your goats sheltered under this tree
Last night, when the huge storm struck.
Now they will not leave it,
Even though the storm has passed
And the morning is as clear as can be!
If only one of these goats
Was bold enough to leave
The shady comfort of the tree,
Then the rest would surely follow.
Oh it takes a great one
To lead the way out of that shade.
A few more stories…
A man strides over a tarnished,
Darkened landscape where nothing grows.
Just black skeletal tree stumps here and there.
He keeps chanting to himself the mantra:
It's all in the name of progress!
One nation's leader assists
In bombing another, then another.
Then he wonders why some of his population
Are radicalising. Some even want to kill him!
Some wonder!
A woman lost in love
Trips over some stairs.
She was gazing at the sky.
There are lots of different kinds of blindness.
The one that arises when lovers are
Together is the best of these.
In actual fact it is a non-blindness.
Rather, it is an opening up,
An insight into the divine.
One morning
You wake up together
And you find you are fighting
Over the same book of poetry.
You go to make breakfast,
And you want the same music playing!
It’s almost as if you have been
Spending your whole life aimlessly
Wandering down a path just in order
That you could meet up with this one.
There are lips everywhere.
Kiss them.
There are arms everywhere.
Hold them
Hold them.
There is a heart everywhere.
Caress it.
The goats looked at each other,
Then at the ancient, then at each other again.
Finally they follow him down the mountain pass.
Be bold. Walk out from the shelter,
If you feel the storm is over.