To see differently

a Tao-inspired poem from the earth-bound sky

I used to sit upright,

like a student,

waiting for the lesson.

Back straight.

Eyes scanning sky.

Expecting wisdom to descend.

But today,

I laid myself down.

Spine softened to the Earth.

Face tilted toward clouds.

And there—

the birds.

Not above,

but within my field of surrender.

Not flying to impress me,

but simply… flying.

A different kind of knowing arrived.

Not in form,

but in fluid.

The lesson wasn’t in the birds,

but in how I looked.

Not from the peak,

but from the ground.

Not seeking meaning,

but letting meaning find me

in stillness.

To be under

is to be above.

To lay down

is to rise.

The Tao flows best

in the unguarded angle,

the awkward tilt,

the wayward gaze

no longer trying to understand.

To observe art

is to become art.

To see

is to dissolve the seer.

The sky remained the same.

But I changed shape.

And because of that—I saw.

And then—

at the shore,

I tried to spot dolphins.

Eyes fixed on the horizon,

on the shimmering line

where sea kisses sky.

But the ocean felt distant,

like a dream I couldn't quite reach.

Its beauty untouchable,

its magic reserved for other eyes.

So I surrendered again.

This time, sideways.

Cheek resting on warm sand.

Ear pressed into the Earth’s skin.

And there,

in the pulse beneath me,

I felt her.

The Ocean.

Inside me.

Around me.

Becoming me.

Not far.

Not unreachable.

But intimate.

Riveting.

Endearing.

She spoke through vibration—

a lullaby in bones,

a tide in my womb,

a calling I didn’t know I belonged to.

I no longer needed to see the dolphins.

I was already swimming.

Already held.

This is how nature teaches:

when we stop looking outward,

and begin to feel inward.

This is how the sacred is revealed:

not in the striving,

but in the surrender.

To lay low,

to listen deep,

is to be cradled by the cosmos.

Heaven is not always above.

Sometimes,

it is beneath your ear.

In the tremble of sand.

In the heartbeat of waves.

And because of that—

I knew.

Solarys,