The Clearing

View PDF

“Quantum physics makes the seemingly preposterous claim (actually
more than a claim, since it has been upheld in countless experiments)
that there is no ‘is’ until an observer makes an observation.” —Jeffrey
M. Schwartz and Sharon Begley, The Mind and The Brain (New
York: ReganBooks/HarperCollins, 2002), 263. 

“Physical events enter our awareness as reality only when addressed
with a specific question.” —Stanton Harris Hall 

Spring again. 
The browns, the ochre, 
the brittle death of fall and winter 
recast in transcendent greens— 
            vibrant, transparent, resurgent. 

The first rays of morning sun 
illuminate the canopy of this New England forest 
            beech, sugar maple, and hickory, 
transforming the verdant ceiling 
into a vision of Monet’s water lilies floating overhead. 

The boy Joseph slips quietly out the door 
and into the sunrise 
moving quickly through the hayfield 
to the small forest clearing 
he knew so well. 

Kneeling, 
the question 
in his heart takes voice, 
a simple question 
but one of quantum significance, 

and the answer unfolds— 
first in darkness 
and then— 
in a brilliance 
“above the brightness of the sun.” 

No mountain, no cloud, 
no still small voice, 
simply brilliance. 
The ultimate allegory of renewal,
            the Father, the Son, the answer,
all clothed in light.