humbled

coming across a body of work
(literary, visual, theoretical,
physical, aural---all evidently
significant to what it is to be
human amidst other humans
in the present, here) put forth
by a wo/man which it would
take two lifetimes to indulge
in---inspiring & making life
more fascinating with each
turn of the metaphorical
page (aspects of a voice/actions
that demand nothing of you
but keeps your focus, acute &
precise, unobligated & easy,
giving back 10 fold satiation),
yes,
this is when the domino effect
of influence is witnessed, wherein
the production of one piles on
another & such mutual interest &
mutual investment of time & energy
together, gets seen by others, gets
found by others & passed on
like a torch whose flame burns
merely with the fuel produced by
its passing & the humbling notion
hits us when standing in the shadow
of a wo/man wiser, one that has no
problem acknowledging their own
ignorance & humbling in the light of
those that have influenced them---
knowing that no truly & spontaneously
original act or thought comes about
without the genius of those that have
come before & that nothing will
progress without those that come
after, creating a pastiche of all people
everywhere, simultaneously walking
at our own individual pace, with one
foot in a shallow puddle of significance
& the other in a puddle of irrelevance---
both feet splashing & mixing, splashing
& mixing, until we stop walking.