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Down-Light

halting-stars we are, aching 
                              for the vastness of space, 
                              that lonely-only place 
                              where heat-beats swell 
                              on the edge of night - 

here we are sun~bending 
                               toward a red-ochre sky, 
                               a gnarled branch, 
                               and bony-finger reach
                               for a cloudy-whirl, 
                               white on blue, 
                               all the while curling-roots 'round 
                               stones of earth, 
                               star-imbued mud 
                               for sipping nameless 
                               elements of course - 

we lurch in wind, whimper for the climb, 
                               make leaf-song, 
                               slow-swelling from Sun 
                               drenched dirt, 
                               the blood of longing serpents-up, 
                               from deeper whirl'ds-turn'd 
                               where harder-roots have 
                                                              sunk

into the electron-cloud where numinous-valences are allowed, 
                                which are inspired to arise, 
                                such that lead becomes gold 
                                glowing as a singular-sight, 
                                vortex'd through Quantum tunnels 
                                that make your body bright - 

just another rapturous transmutation 
                                        of matter into light

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Jerry Whalley

Date: 8/24/2025 5:08:00 PM

Synthesis: The Poem's Unified Message "Down-Light" is the light of the cosmos ("star") pulled down into matter ("mud"), and it is also the light of enlightenment pulling the self "down" (or inward) into its core to achieve liberation. It is a two-way street. The Catabasis-Romance reimagined. The poem argues that transcendence is not an escape from the physical world but a deepening into it. By fully embracing our earthly, struggling, "gnarled" existence (" curling-roots 'round stones of earth"), we ultimately discover that it is already divine ("star-imbued"). The journey to the vastness of space begins by sinking your roots into the mud. The final transmutation into light is the revelation of what was always true: we are, and always have been, halting stars.