I AM interested in your I AM
- Graham Westwell
- 1 hour ago
- 2 min read
In between the polarities
of this
and that
I AM
I AM interested in your I AM.
Ah so!
Ah so! (Ram Dass reminds me)[i]
“It doesn’t interest me what you do
for a living”
(whispers Oriah Mountain Dreamer, from inside the frame of her poem on the top of the metal filing cabinet, in the staffroom at Wigan & Leigh College, 2004 – challenging me to be present each time; to I and thou)[ii]
but I do want to
open my heart
to love &
I AM interested
in you
doing the
same (shares Graham, November 2024, in the group where they’re not sure if they’re being interesting enough; realising what an old wound this must be …)
- for us, for all of us (in the fourth world, cries Roy Harper; I sing along, tears on my face)[iii]
because, I know that
when we go beyond
the polarities of
this and that
then we can meet
in a place
where love is
not questionable
or questioned
(Rumi awakens me to this)[iv]
I AM interested in your I AM
© Graham Westwell, 11 November 2024 – 20 March 2025.
Notes and resources
[i] Ram Dass ... sitting by the fire ...
“We are coming together on the path to meet, to recognize one another, and to share maps, and to realise that the maps are part of it, but behind the maps – here we are.” Ram Dass, Naropa University, 1974.
[ii] The Invitation by Oriah Mountain Dreamer
We had this poem inside a frame in the staffroom at W&L College. You can read the original here:
[iii] Roy Harper, ‘The Fourth world’.
This song does contain swear words. Please don’t listen to it if you’re offended by such words.
My dog is named Harper.
I remember playing and talking about this song at a residential weekend, when I was training to be a Person-Centred Counsellor, back in 2000.
[iv] Rumi, ‘A great wagon’, excerpt:
“Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing,
there is a field. I’ll meet you there.
When the soul lies down in that grass,
the world is too full to talk about.
Ideas, language, even the phrase “each other”
doesn’t make any sense.
The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you.
Don’t go back to sleep.
You must ask for what you really want.
Don’t go back to sleep.
People are going back and forth across the doorsill
where the two worlds touch.
The door is round and open.
Don’t go back to sleep.”
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