223. “Brother, I’ve Seen Some Astonishing Sights”

Caroline’s Rose (NGC 7789)/Guillaume Seigneuret

This verse, says Kabir, / Is your key to the universe. / If you can figure it out.

Brother, I’ve seen some

Astonishing sights:

A lion keeping watch

Over pasturing cows;

A mother delivered

After her son was;

A guru prostrated

Before his disciple;

Fish spawning

On treetops;

A cat carrying away

A dog;

A gunny-sack

Driving a bullock-cart;

A buffalo going out to graze,

Sitting on a horse;

A tree with its branches in the earth,

Its roots in the sky;

A tree with flowering roots.

This verse, says Kabir,

Is your key to the universe.

If you can figure it out.

Prompt

Compose a list of astonishing sights. They can be real or invented—from stunning visions, to moments from your own life that encapsulate both high and low, to inversions of the normal order. Explore paradox. Ponder mystery. Discover a new way of seeing. If you’d like, begin with the line, “Brother (or Sister, or Friend), I’ve seen some astonishing sights…”