Gavage
Listen Here- Podcast Style
Man creates culture and through culture creates himself.
Pope John Paul II
Gavage
Concrete strides over top of a fallen blue.
Nooks hunker in to chew on the cob of a cranny.
Everything is for sale. Meaning hides
sliced between crusts of culture.
Cooked and covered. Garnished in guilt
that leaks through a wrapper choked
with the grip of shame.
Words eat wisdom.
Knowing is left to ferment
in the refuge of the gut.
In the refuse of presence
wonder lies wounded
under the boot - of man.
© Jamie MillardGa·vage
/ɡəˈväZH/ nounThe administration of food or drugs by force, especially to an animal, typically through a tube leading down the throat to the stomach.
We are born as questions.
As humans we are also mammals born into the care of others who train, define, educate and shape us. In the quest of survival we are trained to assimilate.
In its stories culture does its best to give us answers. We spin our own stories into that web of answers as we slowly create our own culture.
Without even realizing it or intending it many of our cultures have slowly subjugated nature. We have ventured into ownership. Everything seems to be for sale. Many things have lost their meaning. As Canadian typographer, poet and author Robert Bringhurst shared in The Tree of Meaning, “We cannot wonder at the world because we are not sure the world exists.” Have we taken the world out of being human? Have we separated the human from the rest of the world? Is that the inverse of education?
Where is the awe of wonder for the world? There is something spiritual to this journey. What has happened to the shiver of mystery? Where does the astonishment of what cannot be put into words, exist? Poetry listens to the world. I listen with it. I hear a question. I hear questions. Breathing, living questions. They watch me. They listen to me. In that conversation maybe I will slowly live into the answer.
To wonder as I wonder.
Unless you somehow have a foot outside of your culture, the culture will swallow you whole.
Daniel Berrigan
Thank you for Being- Here.
The audio version can be found under the main title above.
May you swallow some wonder as you have the best of days.
Lots of Love,
Jamie
Beautifully written. Yes, poetry transports the mystery, embraces the hidden energies that can't be seen, because poetry is more to be felt and experienced than read and received with the mind. 💕 Thanks for this!
Hi Jamie, Wow … so much to ponder and so beautifully written, and read. I had never heard of the word gavage … we do forget who we are when we break away from the source of the culture we create. Thank you for bringing us back to the ‘awe, wonder and shiver of mystery’ 😊💜🙏