The Meaning of Life is to See
So said Hui-Neng
in the seventh century.
And what are we to contemplate
with the other-worldly third eye
we are urged to open wide?
Shall we regard
the dandelion
defying Round-Up and rusted blade
thrusting forth its flower, yellow
against fissured cement,
the decaying fence,
sun-powered, indomitable?
Shall we keep watch
for constellations, the Southern Cross
forming, in its ordered, linear course,
a celestial four-way stop?
And what of the cold-stunned carp
suspended below the thin, cracked ice
of a backyard pond,
the sheen of scales weak
as winter dawn, but tomorrow,
when it’s warmer,
a brighter orange?
Shall we notice
how the eyes of a newborn
mirror those of her great-grandmother?
Behind the same soft, misted veils,
do they glimpse
forgotten realms?
What, with our awakened vision
should we commit to memory?
Ten thousand things, said Neng,
but especially
leaves,
the progeny of trees,
wheeling at the whim of light,
greening and browning and greening again,
now brittle and broken,
then whole and succulent.
Since 2019, Claire Massey has been a selection editor for the biennial print journal, The Emerald Coast Review. She is poetry editor for The Pen Woman magazine. Her work appears in numerous journals of the literary arts, including POEM, Snapdragon Journal of Art and Healing, Panoply, Wilderness House Literary Review, The Avalon Literary Review, Literally Stories, and The Listening Anthology. Recently nominated for a 2023 Pushcart Prize, her work has twice won awards from the National Soul-Making Keats Competition, and was longlisted for a 2023 Letter Review prize. Read more of her aesthetic in her debut collection, Driver Side Window: Poems & Prose.
Image by Luke Wallin, author, visual artist and professor emeritus of English at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, USA.
Amethyst Review 
The poet gives us an array of things to see and contemplate. Her skill with diction and phraseology helps sharpen our awareness of the many opportunities in our daily lives to marvel. The formal tone befits the philosopher who inspired it; the ending lifts us up (“wheeling at the whim of light” is so nice; the vibrant artwork emphasizes the leaves and the world’s magic.
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I had to read this poem again…and again…it gave me chill bumps every time!!! The descriptions so vividly captured the essence of the magical things we see every day! This author so cleverly uses prose to draw the reader in, at just the right pace, with just the right emphasis on building to the finale!! I especially love the “do they glimpse forgotten realms”!! A truly talented artist, this poem will go in my poetry favorites folder!!!
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Claire’s poem shows us what we don’t see and inspires me to look more closely at everything. I especially love “the eyes of the newborn.” Luke’s image and the poem complement and enhance each other with beauty and mysticism, both “otherworldly.”
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A link lands me at the journal masthead where I read the poem’s title while being teased with a burst of color from the bottom of my monitor. Scrolling slowly, greens and oranges and lavender-pinks fill my entire screen. I pause and enjoy the view, then look out my window at the large rhododendron tree, it now early-spring green but soon to achieve Luke Wallin’s magic leaves and blooms. My eyes and mind are now filled with color as I scroll on down, moving from Wallin’s painting to Claire Massey’s words, The Meaning of Life Is to See.
What do we commit to memory, she asks? She offers us—through her fine-hewn lines—dandelions, stars, fish, babies and leaves to contemplate with our awakened vision. As Hui-Neng said in the seventh century: The Meaning of Life Is to See.
Thanks to Massey & Wallin, we can see; they allow us this moment to reflect and acknowledge the meaning of Life…and of leaves.
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