Capax Infiniti

Nothing is yours except the essential things – 
air, sleep, dreams, the sea, the sky.

 ~Cesare Pavese

This lonely windblown instant on the gravelly edge

of a muddy middle-of-nowhere parking lot

right before the storm.

This sweet and sweaty apple-blossomed breeze

drifting dusty-fingered across your skin

ready to be smelled.

Air is yours.

This shadow hair’s breadth sheltering your eyes

extracting exhaustion out of achy muscles

restoring worn-out cells.

This brilliant way to put the world on hold

temporary cessation of suffering

rewarding work well-done.

Sleep is yours.

These fragments of intangible alternative

semi-sublime subconscious tessellations

constructing a way out.

These liquid-mirror tremblesome reflections

thrill-shot with an impulsive oblique shimmer

of something else and other.

Dreams are yours.

This vast, ship-eating rhythm of infinitude

sucking sand from underneath your feet

back to its throbbing soul.

This crushing depth of interstellar density

rocking salt-surf giving you a reason

to reach the other side.

The sea is yours.

This architect of all unanswered questions

star-speckled absurdity of agelessness

glimpse of greater worlds.

This lonely paradoxical iconoclast

never tired of surprising earth-sick eyes

with archaic cloud-patterns.

The sky is yours.

All this is given. In order that you

may remember, may not forget that

nothing is yours except the essential

except the liminal something in your

body that responds, for just as long as

you are able to keep yourself enchanted.

Nothing is yours except what is given.

‘God only gives, and has only Himself

to give.’ Maybe that is what it means?

Nothing is yours except God.

~ by Shannon Lise

Note: This poem was originally published as part of the Utmost Christian Writer's 2012 Poetry Contest