-

Trustworthy

 

        A secret safety resides in the pomegranate’s pregnant belly

        is hiding inside bloodred seeds of truth filled with imminent

        life – we might no longer believe in such luscious possibilities

        instead, we the people panic, deny, force, coerce, control, are

        thinking too wishfully, grasping tightly – can’t trust the stream

        skin and brain cells’ quiet steady renewal, pulsing beingness

        – tenacious

        change so intensely uncomfortable, inconvenient, uncontrollable

        like my laughter when the radio announcer reports that the driver

        was put into driver-less status, yes, his misconduct got passengers

        wildly flying about in the tram, him dozing off in the morning hour

        train turning sharp corner when exiting tunnel – we occupied with

        fearing the uncontrollable, we asleep to delicious momentum of

 

                    all that is alive

 


        we ignore the ethereal protection that sun and earth’s juices afford us

        shower us with, just as brave gravity holding our feet to the ground

        cosmic vibrations breathing us like accordions with reverberant

        rhythms and melodies – if we could just unlock our rigid cages

        ribs, toes, hips, stubborn refusal to open hidden chambers

 

deeply sensing 

        surrendering

 

        not to man-made rules but the realm of universum’s wisdom

        our responsibility to be present, my goodness, yes… not

        asleep on the job – no more business as usual –

        awake, responsive, calm, trustworthy

 

        the fully pregnant pomegranate

        being broken open willingly

        releasing and sharing

        her shiny kernels’

        wise blood

                            her nourishment

                    aliveness

 

Karina Epperlein, Berkeley, November 2025

 

Comments

Fern said…
Beautiful Beautiful Poem, filled with seeds of truth. "if we could just unlock our rigid cages, ribs, toes, hips, stubborn refusal to open hidden chambers - deeply sensing, surrendering."
Thanks to you Karina for creating!

November 15, 2025 at 8:30 AM
Ken said…
Thank you for reminding us, Karina, with the insightful perception and wit of this beautiful poem, that, if we choose to practice awareness and empathy, we might "trust the stream", and listen to what the universe within and without us is always telling us ... and truly taste the nourishment of being alive.
November 18, 2025 at 8:25 PM
Alex K said…
I, like the train conductor can be untrustworthy, Your poem cracks my heart open enough to see what is trustworthy.
November 20, 2025 at 2:42 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

-
Image
Let Us Be Careful   The last few days, a feeling of being adrift in a vast tumultuous ocean…. I am stirred deeply.  Uneasy. The recent bizarre speeches of American politicians in Germany have left me strangely irritated. The arrogant tone, the hostility. As most of you know, I am now officially  both a German Citizen and an American Citizen . Both countries with their histories and cultures are lodged in my bones. Ich bin tief verbunden . In telephone talks with my two siblings, I try to find out how things are evolving in Germany, the country I left 44 years ago. In recent years, cultural transformations of unknown outcome have been happening. Again, times of war in Europe. It does not bode well for the future. The weight of the Unknown. Generational and personal memories keep arising.     In 1992, I arrange for my (Chicago born Jewish)  late husband Bob Blauner and me  (München born German) a personal tour of the Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial. W...
Read more
-
Image
  “I Wanted All Of Society To Be A Witness.” These days, when tears spring up in the eye so quickly, so readily like tiny wild strawberries, each time I know the heart is touched whether I want it or not – the silvery breathy voice of the young science writer, the shy bowing of the singer receiving her applause, the sweet smile of Cecile after an exquisite concert, the fiercely angry voices of French admirers of Gisèle Pelicot. And then of course: the grandson, one arm around his 72-year-old grandmother’s shoulder as she gives her brief speech to the press after a grueling months-long public trial of rape. He admiringly glances at her, with utter calm, concentration and confidence, soft support in his face and body language, nothing restless, over bearing, pitying – only admiration, respect and love. And I burst into tears! This rape story is not about a celebrity, starlet, beauty queen, but about a retired manager, married mother and grandmother, having been drugged unconscious an...
Read more
-
Image
  I Shall Bear Witness   History never repeats exactly, but the patterns are often similar. With everyone now wildly speculating about the future and what’s to come, I look for inspiration to a voice from my birth country’s darkest times:  Victor Klemperer . A month ago, I pull out the two hefty volumes of his diaries: I Will Bear Witness, the Nazi years 1933 – 1942, and 1942 – 1945 . The German title is: Ich will Zeugnis ablegen bis zum letzten. The literal translation: I want to bear witness  to the last .  To the last. Published in German in 1995, very good translation into English in 1998. Victor Klemperer (1881 – 1960) was a Jewish-born German literary scholar, a cousin of the famous conductor Otto Klemperer, married to Eva, an “Aryan” German, one of the factors that helped the couple to miraculously survive. After the war they settle back in Dresden, which is East Germany under Russian control in 1945. His diaries also survive. They are truly stunning. Pet...
Read more