Matter Matters

The natural world contains the supernatural.
—Flannery O’Connor

It is probably no surprise
that a hearing impaired person
hopes profoundly to perceive
the beloved physical world—
mountains, trees, flowers,
animals, birds, children,
what ever one deeply loves—
which is, Plato taught, shadow,
beloved but partial, a container
for super-natural reality,
the Source and Sustainer
known by our “precious five.”
The seen, touched, tasted is
a stage set carefully framed
by a cosmic proscenium arch
behind which the eternal drama
is continuously directed
by an ethereal, inscrutable,
primarily benevolent Mystery
residing wraithlike in the tangible,
which is why all that’s perceptible
is precious and to be preserved.