I Am...

Uniquely manifest
within the tensions and boundaries
of an always emerging
mysterious interrelation
of unknowable origin
and self-reflected
in the clarity and shadows
of the self and its relationships
from passing perceptions
understood as moments
on a line conceived as time
starting at the retrospectively created idea of birth
and ending at the imaginal projection of death
deducted from the existing patterns of life
held for the security of consistency
for my needs, hers, and
the safe rearing of young
all while being nonspecifically locatable
from one perspective to another
but nonetheless hewn in flesh, breath,
warmth, nutrition, movement,
flux, lineage, community, heart, energy, rhythm, passions, friendship,
skill,
language, light, pattern, care, parent,
exploration, curiosity, freedom, void,
stillness, breeze, texture,
sweat, sex, desire, blood, hair, howl,
cower, scream, avoid, deter, suffer,
envelop, ascend, sleep, approach,
yield, recall, dance, stretch, birth,
witness, agree, create, destroy, covet,
and above all
love.