SIZZLE

Ramakrishna suggests that
The world sizzles with
Consciousness. You can hear
That sizzle early grey mornings
In the Chaparral.

At least, that is what happens
At this time of the year
When everything has started
To look fried: blanched, browned
And crisped to a flaky crust.

I always thought that the ground
Crunched under my worn boot
But now I hear that sound
As a sizzle of Consciousness:
It is the voice of the phenomenal.

Orthodox Hindus understand
That the phenomenal
Is all illusion: that reality exists
Only in the formless Absolute.
RK was radically heterodox…

Accommodating the limits
Of my Western and white brain
While expanding them to
Accept that All
Is sizzling Consciousness.