CHAPARRAL GRIZZLY

Each morning
For twenty minutes
I offer myself the opportunity
To sink into
Universal Consciousness. 

There is a doorway
(I presume) through which
I will be transported
And which may, at first, be evidenced
By a faint tingling in the legs.

This much I have achieved. 
But am I carried to a Place
Of Divine Consciousness?
No: a faint tickle in my shins
Is not a melting into the Empyrean. 

Am I discouraged?
It is not for nothing that I am
Both Consistent and Insistent:
Patient, Waiting, Prepared
For a Vision, a Sign.

Do I imagine the endless Chaparral 
Where somewhere an old man
With white hair is walking towards me
With the Word? No: what I see
Is a ten foot tall California Grizzly Bear

Barreling along a trail
Paws outstretched, willing me
To join the Planetary Chorus
Of Love, Universal Understanding
And Peace… 

This Bear is a phantasm 
Of Pullulating Qualia
Expressed as an abundance 
Of Free Will and Knowing:
It is an Offering of Consciousness.

Jack Kerouac, On the Road