"If" is one of my more recent pieces. It feels like I am finally able to distinguish between a you that I love and You as whatever that is. It seems that being able to distinguish comes along at about the same time and to the same extent that it is possible to know that the individuals are contiguous/in/as the Presence. It comes from a certainty within. I've had some very self-actualized folks tell me how they are trying to move beyond personal limitations, and it is hard to get the message across that those limitations are real enough but they aren't bad and don't need to be troubling. Well, in treating people as if they are separate, it's hard to clearly get the message of oneness across. So if you must cut, cut from the inside; if you don't have to feel that you are sharp, we can still be as different as brush and paint--without being separate. Where does this masterpiece we are a part of come from?
If your heart is a scalpel,
cut me.
Before Creation,
you were you.
That past,
being inescapable,
doesn't make it a prison.
If you are a brush,
let me be paint.
Before union,
art.
You pull
where I push
and the world
comes together
like flint
and a spark.
If you are fire,
let me burn,
if water,
I still burn.
Copyright 2007 Todd Mertz