Contemplating Eternity - Chris Whitler

With some editorial contribution (that made it way better) by Aaron Alford

It’s hard to contemplate eternity with bills on your desk
Difficult to philosophize when your lists are being pests
I’m supposed to think on infinity with the vacuum cleaner going?

I’m too distracted to ask about the nature of being or knowing.

Payments, measures, units, charts, accounts, passwords and numbers
Plastics, metals, poly-blended fabrics, concrete, oil and lumber

All hide the real that’s swirling there, those secret constellations
Beneath our falsities, attempts, and pitiful fabrications


But peel it back a little and our mouths would be agape
At Existence itself under all that’s known, full of light and weight
The song of a rose in a vacant lot, a door that’s found by a key
All around us, if we stop to hear, the sound of Eternity

Sharing, giving, friendship, time, people, conversation
Earth, water, health, paths and joy and recreation

Work, beauty, nature, rest and laughter, tears and blood
Infinitely upward, further inward: Eternity is love.