POETRY
Tree of Life
Maybe the vices, depravities and crimes are nearly always
or even always in their essence attempts to eat beauty,
to eat what one can only look at. Eve initiated this.
If she lost our humanity by eating a fruit, the reverse attitude—
looking at a fruit without eating it—must be what saves.”
–Simone Weil, Waiting for God
Our journey outward
From the tree of life
Began in the bite of an apple
Our journey inward
To the tree of life
Began in the crushing of grapes
The divine to human connection
Flowing from one unseen river
Must now involve violence
Because of the misfortune in Eden
Wandering into dusk poor Adam
Could not foresee the future
In the beauty of the serpent
Poor Eve could not see the sting
Pondering this does no good
We are still listening to serpents
I forgot to mention my inclination
To want to know the future
Which is strictly God’s domain
Like Eve and Adam my heart is set
On what is denied
Thinking God a tyrant for his withholding
The grapes lie under my feet
Their sweet perfume lost on my lust
But still the angel scatters
And still the angels gather
One pushing away and one pulling in
To paradise we go
Through the new tree
With spikes and thorns
Mary Marie Dixon, a visual artist and poet whose focus on women’s and mystic spirituality centered in Great Plains’ nature, has published in various venues and exhibited in galleries. She explores the creative intersection of the visual and poetic. She loves stars, sunrises, and sunsets on the open plains!
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Artwork: “The tree of life: on either side of the river was there the tree of life which bare twelve manner of fruits.–Rev. ch. XXII, 2.” c.1892, Mary Evans / Library of Congress. Public Domain.
Heart of Flesh Literary Journal 