The Earth dashes down
Man's latest idols.
The poor man himself examines the rich man's presents.
The following poem was written while my beloved and I were camping out in the high desert of the Tesuque reservation over one summer because we had no other means for us to live. We were the closest we had ever been to homelessness. The poem describes the "I - Thou" as something to be sought (which might actually be an "I - It" trying to resemble the "I - Thou"):
Dust
Let the wind be our breath again,
(Or the Daemon's that gave us our sight).
Let us not lose the grip of our closeness
While our bodies become blowing dust.
Use the transforming power of the eyes and mind
To make our Bindu Sarovara from any barren waste.
Let me take you away on my flying chariot
That can be seen only after suffering isn't.
Our tears then become the water of life
Source of all happiness.
A solution to this problem seems to be unanswerable, yet one might have the best chance at solving it by being "present" during every change without judgment or expectation; an almost impossible task! A particular ecstasy that one may come to expect will probably never come again, yet the expectation itself may prevent another type of experience from becoming meaningful. The purest presence of two lovers is the "I - Thou." Buber concludes part 1 of I and Thou with this:
It is not possible to live in the bare present. Life would be quite consumed if precautions were not taken to subdue the present speedily and thoroughly. But it is possible to live in the bare past, indeed only in it may a life be organized. We only need to fill each moment with experiencing and using, and it ceases to burn.And in all seriousness of truth, hear this; without It man cannot live. But he who lives with It alone is not a man.1
Carpe Diem
I burn without bothering to refuel
Yet, still, my flame burns brighter each day,
Then, thoughts of the future threaten to cool,
So I keep all but the present away.
Of course, my behavior is irresponsible
Because my future is unsure,
Yet I challenge one to see if it's possible
To match my present's allure,
For every moment I've had, since you
Declared that your love for me is true,
Has been far richer than a whole life or two,
So, should I die today, I would not choose
To amend my ways or pleasure lose.