Digging Up (or: Why I Persist)

author's note:

I can dig it, he can dig it
She can dig it, we can dig it
They can dig it, you can dig it
Oh, let's dig it
     -- from "Grazing in the Grass" by The Friends of Distinction


DIGGING UP (or: WHY I PERSIST)

In sad frustration
I finally gave up
trying to jump--
jump up to heaven:

I just kept coming back down.

However
the desire for more
still agitated me without mercy

so
to release the impulse
I began to dig down
into the stubborn ground

and persist to this day
though the plunge of the shovel
often pains me as the blade cuts into
old abscessed wounds.

Yes, light may burst from the break
but after the flash, I feel diminished
because I’ve seen my blindness again

yet I persist

though in the dimness I often wonder
if the gold I've discovered
is really only costume jewelry.

Yet I persist and why not?--

this mound of dirt I’m piling up
is a pyramid rising, is it not?

Well, maybe yes, but maybe not
in any case, I will persist--because
even if I never find the mother lode
at least, I've found purpose
through this work

and anyway, I believe

if we want a glorious life
we must suffer the pain of healing--
we must struggle to open our eyes
and match doubt with faith

and anyway

you can't fall down
when you're digging.

Everywhere, everywhere--
so many people jumping.

© 2019, Michael R. Patton
the truth of the dream: poetry ebook