I. Vows of Participation

Let me not participate in
the rapacious chase of more,
the economies of never enough.

Let me not participate in
the illusion that because
I can’t fix it all, I may turn away.

Let me not participate in
the amnesia of humanness,
or the shattering of attention spans.

On that note, give me
the quick cut of nothing.
Speak longer, especially when
what you have to say moves you.

I am tempted to say,
let me not participate in despair,
but something stops me.

It must know that
despair is a birthplace.

We give up
and thus give up something –
we clear the decks
vomit up the lies
take off their protection,
and we cry

and we cry

until a new life is born.

II. Vows of Participation

Let me participate in economies of gratitude and enoughness.
Let me never betray the truth of earth’s splendor.

Let me remember to gather in circles.
Let me make honest apologies and genuine reconciliations.
Let me know you and I are limited, and made
not for perfection, but for returns.

Let me touch life with my hands.
Plants, food, ground, people.
In sleek times, may texture take me home.

Let me make art like I eat and sleep,
part of daily living.

Maybe most of all,
let me, let us,
find long-haul hope.
Let us find
in-these-times hope,
the kind that rides along
just beside bewilderment and fear.

Bewilderment. Fear.
Hope. Each other.
For now, for now
these are our companions
in the chariot.

—Tara Mohr

Top Photo Credit: Garsya