Adam and the Campfire

I am worried about the Five Ways of Knowing the World. The thrush has so many tiny feathers around its bill That a thousand ways of knowing might be closer.

Some souls living in the Divine House experienced So much sadness at the amount of darkness God Left inside Man during the Second Creation

That they hid themselves away in an inner room, And so never looked down at those tall grasses Where Adam sat killing rabbits by the first fire..

When the Baal Shem Tov was about to be born, His soul was chosen from among that group of souls Who had turned their eyes away from the window

That's why the Baal Shern could travel a hundred miles In one hour and arrive at the village just in time To give the poor daughter money for her marriage.

That is why some souls have no birth certificate, And why Francis Bacon could never understand How Joseph rose up from the bottom of his well.

ROBERT BLr is the author of the bestseller Iron John, which launched the men's movement to national fame, as well as ten collections of poetry and, most recently, The Sibling Society. He lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

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