{"id":286635,"date":"2025-01-27T12:00:04","date_gmt":"2025-01-27T12:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=286635"},"modified":"2025-01-26T06:27:28","modified_gmt":"2025-01-26T06:27:28","slug":"in-the-thick-of-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2025\/01\/in-the-thick-of-it\/","title":{"rendered":"In the Thick of It"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Image via Adobe Stock<\/p><\/div>\n

26 Jan 2025<\/em><\/p>\n

Here in the thick of it,
\nour eyes full of pixels and our veins full of microplastics,
\nout here with the child amputees in Gaza
\nand the frightened street schizophrenics in Los Angeles
\nand the pigs living their whole lives in metal crates the size of their bodies,
\nour lives ruled by algorithms and wealthy world eaters
\nas we pray for a miracle on knees made of miracles
\nwith clasped hands made of miracles in a world made of miracles,
\ncraning our necks to see past the giant flashing signs saying
\n\u201cYOU ARE LOVED, YOU ARE LOVE\u201d
\nin order to find Defects and Inadequacy.<\/p>\n

In the thick of it,
\nup to our ears in it,
\ncracked wide open,
\nwide open to the screams of mothers clutching tiny broken bodies,
\nto the screams of men on fire,
\nto the screams of dying coral reefs and rainforests,
\nto the screams inside all of us saying
\n\u201cSomething is wrong, something has gone very, very wrong,\u201d
\nwide open to the agony but also to the beauty,
\nto the booming holiness of the earth and the sky,
\nto the mysteries hiding in abandoned buildings,
\nto the noble pigeons whose pristine minds know nothing of Elon Musk,
\nto that place of tenderness within all of us which we cover with shields and armor and feigned toughness and pretend confidence,
\nfeeling it all,
\nletting it all in,
\nthe pain and the exaltation
\nand the weight and the exuberance
\nand the rage and the orgasms
\nand the darkness and the light
\nand the Israeli stormtroopers and their victims
\nand the bank boys and the savage saints
\nand that song within all of us calling us home saying
\n\u201cIt\u2019s here! It\u2019s here! Buddha nature is here!\u201d,
\nand blessing it all,
\nmy darling,
\nblessing it all.<\/p>\n

Here in the thick of it,
\nour hearts sliced open like gutted fish,
\nwe breathe in the air,
\nexhaust fumes and all,
\nand we realize with slowly widening eyelids that this,
\nthis is paradise.
\nThere is no Heaven but That which sits before us
\nand beats within our chests
\nand grows the grass
\nand spins the galaxies,
\nright this very waking moment,
\ncloser to us than our own skeletons
\nwhich will one day be laid to rest
\nbeneath the soil of a revolving ball
\nin a universe we never once in our lives
\nunderstood.<\/p>\n

________________________________<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Caitlin Johnstone is a rogue journalist, poet, and utopia prepper<\/em>. Contact: <\/em>admin@caitlinjohnstone.com<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Go to Original – caitlinjohnstone.com.au<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here in the thick of it,
\nour eyes full of pixels and our veins full of microplastics,
\nout here with the child amputees in Gaza
\nand the frightened street schizophrenics in Los Angeles<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":286636,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[182],"tags":[868],"class_list":["post-286635","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-poetry-format","tag-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286635","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=286635"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286635\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":286641,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286635\/revisions\/286641"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/286636"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=286635"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=286635"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=286635"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}