Purt Near

Randy Rieman recites Purt Near! by Squire Omar Barker

Thomas Merton wrote,
there is always a temptation to diddle around in the contemplative life, making itsy-bitsy statues.
There is always an enormous temptation in all of life to diddle around making itsy-bitsy friends
and meals and journeys
for itsy-bitsy years on end.
It is so self-conscious,
so apparently moral,
simply to step aside from the gaps where the creeks and winds pour down, saying, I never merited this grace, quite rightly, and then to sulk along the rest of your days on the edge of rage.
I won’t have it.

The world is wilder than that
in all directions,
more dangerous and bitter,
more extravagant and bright.
We are making hay when we
should be making whoopee;
we are raising tomatoes
when we should be raising
Cain, or Lazarus.
Go up into the gaps.
If you can find them;
they shift and vanish too.
Stalk the gaps.
Squeak into a gap in the soil, turn, and unlock---more than
a maple---a universe.
This is how you spend
this afternoon,
and tomorrow morning,
and tomorrow afternoon.
Spend the afternoon.
You can’t take it with you.
--Annie Dillard
Pilgrim at Tinker Creek