The Same Gaze

Day — one million
Is it not the millionth —
And the first — day
What makes it feel this way —

This pristine
Uncorrupted, untouched
Neither light nor dark
Full nor empty
Both ancient and new

Is it not this — awareness —
That makes it feel so
That makes it feel
Complete
And it’s not even that there’s something
That feels complete —

It's just that it is complete
Without any sense
Of being so

Whatever is touched — sensed —
Has the same quality

What a —
World this is

What a —
Gaze

Somehow —
Somehow there is this certainty
Utter and simple —
That it is the exact
Same gaze
That gazes — has ever gazed

Through anything — anyone
Anywhere
At any time — that has ever
Been
Will be
Could be

Losing nothing
Gaining nothing
By gazing —
From this sofa — in this moment
Through these eyes
Out that window

It has fulfilled
Is fulfilling
The destiny
Of countless others

I may think —

Of those who came
Before
But it isn’t —

The mind wants to be special —
This telescope
Wants to be named
Celebrated
Placed in a museum —

For it happened — to be the one
Of many in the long line
Of telescopes
That came before — that could see
That star —

But it never did —
It was the eye
Always the same gaze
That sees

That already is —
In that place, at that place
In the distant sky —
Here