This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.
Rumi
Dear Readers,
Please find below a beautiful poem by Clive Perrett in our Weekly Pearls of Wisdom. I’m very honored to have this opportunity to bring you such an epic piece of work. I love all of his poetry but this is definitely one of my personal favourites. Clive Perrett’s poetry touches chords of heart, it’s deep, moving and full of hidden pearls of wisdom. Clive presents his own soul and heart in his poetry. His words will have you turning inward and examining your own self Inshallah.
I Want to Be a Human Being
Clive Perrett
I want to be a human being.
I want to penetrate to the heart
Of what it means to be human,To the heart,
Of what it means,
To breathe this air,
To drink this rainwater,
To slaughter and eat
This animal,
To plant these seeds,
And grow this corn,
And make this bread,
To understand what it means
To love and to be loved,
To nurture and to care,
To protect our children,
And watch them grow,
To ponder and wonder,
At the mystery,
Of our own eyes,
And ears, and speech,
And thought.
I want to know why,
We have been given a life
Whose meaning we do not know.I want to penetrate to the heart
Of existence, to know the difference
Between being and not being,I want to sit beside Hamlet, and Lear,
And Macbeth, in their agonies
And their questionings.I want to dive deep
Into the mysteries of love,
And to dispel the demons
Of indifference.I want to break free
Of the prison house
Of random despair.I want to break free
From a world which
Prides itself,
On its weaponry,
On its bombs,
And its bombers,
On its missiles,
And its jet fighters,
And on all its dark and dismal
Engines of death.I want to break free from a world
In which human beings,
See nothing but
Their own reflections.I want to see the sky,
And the birds soaring in the blue yonder,
And I want to be with those who know
The spirit message of the birds.I want to be with those
Who know the blessings
Of each day,
Each minute, each second.I want to be with those,
Whose silence is not filled
With formless chatter.I want to be with those
Whose seriousness can laugh,
And whose laughter can cry.I want to be with those who speak
From their hearts,
And who cry from their souls.I want to commune with the sea.
I want to sit amongst the trees.
I want to hear the rippling brook.
I want to hear the birds, singing
In the pale dawn light.I want to hear the majesty of thunder,
And to feel the shock of the lightning.I want to reason with those
Who listen, and are thoughtful,
And those who allow the argument
Of living,
To unfold.I want to walk through midnight rainy
Streets and see the neon lights
Bow down and worship the stars.I want to stand by the motorway at noon,
In the heat of the day,
And know my fragility.I want to watch and hear
The alder leaves twitching in the breeze
And to feel their blessing.I want to be alive,
Facing the certainty of death.I want to become
A human being.
