Turtle Island

'Turtle Island'
expresses the idea
that the Universe, the Earth, or North America
can be understood as the
back of a great turtle,
a mysterious natural consciousness.

it's that last word that intrigues me.

for i'd known, since my instincts opened my eyes
that the myriad kindred spirits
lighting up our
fellow bits of stardust
had the same claims to sentience
as we.

from this i divined
that the human-obsessed entity
personified as "god"
was a near-sighted attempt
to fill the space
a perceived absence makes
of that same
extended connection;
what i address as
Universe or Great Mystery,
taking a cue
from those who
willingly refrain
from the arrogant conceit
that would limit or define
the unfathomable collective consciousness
of our trillion, trillion, trillion
concentric selves
(whether with pale,
cookie-cutter archetypes
sprung from our
little twig
on the primate tree,
or no).

but it would seem that our
ancestors are telling us
that the frame of our
self-identified awareness,
the trembling stage in this
infinite panorama of elusive illusion,
is conscious itself.

the breathtaking ramifications
are as the numberless seams
of a dream within a dream.
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- Evan Hawthorn, the 20^th of February, 2017