Tread lightly on the ground

People of the dust

Walking clay

Beneath your feet

Your forbears mingle there

Holding you up

Breathing history into pores of clay feet

1-13-22

Last Friday, I wrote and read this poem at the Park Circle Gallery in North Charleston for the opening exhibition of work by Artist, Pascale Bilgis, called, ‘Little Flat People.’

The exhibition included 466 small clay figurines. I was informed and inspired by the following two quotes:

“O CHILDREN OF MEN! Know ye not why We created you all from the same dust? That no one should exalt himself over the other.”(Baha’u’llah)

“Walk as if you are kissing the Earth with your feet.” (Thich Nhat Hanh, Vietnamese Buddhist monk)