Perception of the Senses

[Robert Stephen Herrick]

Perception of the Senses
By Robert Stephen Herrick

Take in your environment
and its many blessings and flaws
to sense the sense of it all
in parts and pieces to find peace
from within it bit by bit to
understand existance.

Catch the nature of nature's
beauty and its wrath, but be
willing to survive what you do
perceive to be the life around you
hidden in stone and steel
all around the world.

Show yourself the truth and lies
that really lie down upon the earth
whether by that which directly
surrounds your very living being
or encompassing all that you have seen
within your memories including what
you have heard,
including the rolling ocean surf
and the roar of a jet engine,
what you have smelled,
including that flowers of the field
and the scent of fresh asphalt,
what you have tasted,
including victory and death,
and that which you have touched,
including the hearts of others
and others touching at your own heart;
to perceive this takes attention
and many levels of perception.

Combine your awareness into your
existance and you will know life;
piece by piece the picture flows
like the wind on a partly clouded day,
like the structure of an individual snowflake
before it melts away to reform again
on a cold winter morning before sunrise,
like a human life always in danger
but not always by death even if it is seen,
no, the key to life is perception.