David James
SEARCHING FOR THE CALL GAME
after Joseph Campbell
Time, space, an eraser,
an article of nature,
desire and cloth
are all you need.
Find someplace
where you can be alone
or lonely, it doesn't matter
which.
Take the cloth
in your left hand, and twirl it
through the air, back and forth,
up and down. Concentrate
on the movement alone
for hours, for days or weeks,
until it's all you see,
all you think about,
until you feel your body sailing.
The next step is the most difficult:
stop.
Rub the eraser on the leaf or rock
or branch and then rub it
on yourself.
Continue doing this for five hours,
rubbing on, rubbing off,
moving from your head to stomach,
feet to arms, covering everything.
Then close your eyes
and listen.
If you have any desire left,
you will hear a kind of music
or song pulling itself
out of you and back into you.
This is what you are looking for.
Those who win this game
hear that music
and follow it into the darkness.