Sand to Eternity

by Gary Colombo De Piazzi

‘To see eternity in a grain of sand’ –
William Blake

If you can imagine this room
filled with sand from the Western Desert
with a creek flowing to the inland sea.
Then you will find yourself without walls
and at the mercy of fire and air.

Feel the earth trickle through toes
kissed with the taste of moisture
and the harsh metal ring of inland birds.

Find the silence that breeds in rocks
steals across dew dipped leaves
in that time between night and day.

It is here that form alters with each breath
submerges into something kneaded by time
to find itself frayed, corrupted and abandoned.
Without direction, but rather, all directions
and all instants in the one moment.

A consumptive expansion overfilled
with the simplicity of what is.
A complete absorption into every grain
of sand, every green twig and every grey rock
until there is no them only one.

A place where boundaries blur
and distinction falters against homogeneity.
Where everything is relegated
to the basest block, the minutest atom.

If you can image this room
filled with sand from the Western Desert
with a creek flowing to the inland sea.
Then you will find yourself without walls
and at the mercy of fire and air.