Faces

NEW MOMENT, NEW FACE?

            Every so often, it becomes clear to me that each moment is a brand new one, never before seen or experienced in the whole history of the universe. Try as I may, I can’t imagine anything in any present moment that’s not completely unused and fresh. Moments may seem to contain odds and ends from the past, but those odds and ends are all experienced in the brand new moment called Now. If I say, staring at the mirror, that my face is surely not new, the statement itself is said in the pristine present moment. The statement is about “oldness”, but the statement, as well as the thought behind it and the moment itself, shines with sheer newness. I can label my face, with all its furrows and grooves, as “old”, but since it’s staring back at me in a totally new and unspoiled moment, it must somehow share in that unblemished newness. As strange as it may sound, if the moment is new, must not the face also be new? I wonder . . . Could thinking this way – thinking about the absolute inescapability of newness – actually transform the appearance of a face? Could my well-wrinkled face, seen in the mirror always with a spirit of newness, slowly seem somewhat newer, day by day? 

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POST PEOPLE

And here’s a face we passed on our walk today. It may look like just an ordinary post, but look carefully

and you’ll see its two eyes on the white band (which perhaps is sunglasses it sometimes wears), the nose running in a line down the middle, and the mouth down below. (It seems to have a growth to the right of the nose, but posts don’t mind that sort of thing.)

And here’s another postface we passed.

It seems to be wearing a headband, and its eyes are surrounded by white rings – perhaps a sort of makeup that posts sometimes use. Its mouth is pursed up in a tight circle, like maybe it’s marveling at how handsome the photographer is, and down at the bottom, its shirt collar is tightly buttoned, no doubt a proper way for posts to dress out in a field.

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ONE DAY LIKE CHILDREN

One day,
they chose to be like children,
chose to have stunned faces
and eyes as wide as windows.
They walked around
wondering why and how
about everything. 
They gaped instead of looked,
studied instead of passed by,
stopped and stared instead of
glanced and went. 
They spoke
only questions or exclamations
all day, 
because you can't
say clear statements
if you are constantly 
astonished.