meaning-full

looking for meaning
in most things
may be
if not mistaken,
then at least
unhelpful, because it brings
such sorrow.
i've made a list
of places not to look:
anywhere that you forsook someone
or were forsaken,
where you were yesterday
or hoped to be
tomorrow,
the news, the television
generally---
it's a voluntary prison
we put ourselves in daily.
it's best to look outside---
outside ourselves,
outside our walls
and noisy streets.
look to the slide of raindrops
down a tree,
the way the bark shines
and colors appear.
a hawk may take a rabbit
for its meal,
and there is some grief,
but not like our human world
where one who takes a life
is not a hunter
but a thief.
look to the calls of birds
the way their chorus greets
the dawn,
look at a leaf in the sun
shining like a gem---
all the things we barely see
and barely hear
because of noise
and daily grind
and false comparison.
see the world
for what it is:
beautiful.
it need not have been,
but somehow is
and that evergreen perplexity
of beauty being
is all the meaning
that i need to see.