We have conquered this planet,
or so we think,
we speak of progress,
but we have not
conquered ourselves:
our fears,
our divisions,
our prejudices,
our desire to control,
ignoring the lurking shadow that
sits around the corner and waits.

We are here on the surface of
this changing earth subject to
forces both inside and out,
large and small,
but finding neat and
organised delusions that
take us away from the fact of
our shared existence as
creatures that
come and go,
just like ants in a colony.

We want more than the fact of
our fleshly humanity, more than the
sight of seeing another
smiling and frowning face
that is like us but we care not
to see, more than the fact of
our presence in the ecology of
us and the world that we seem
to embrace and then deny.

We are so caught up in the cycle of
chasing and acquisition that we
cannot see the truth
of this existence: that we are contingent,
suffer, die, live with uncertainty;
but we have a chance
to move beyond the conquering of
others and the world to conquering
ourselves and facing the shadow
so that it is plain who we are and
the possibility of what we might be,
as the beautiful,
in and beyond the world.

 

17/1/2026