Humanist Voices in Verse: “Plant Me in the Soil” by AshlieRene Gonzales

This week’s poem is by AshlieRene Gonzalez, a twenty-four-year-old, Oregon-based international traveler, photographer and cinematographer. Her lucid poetry and writing, frequently paired with imagery, is a truthful reflection of a twenty-first century freethinker, living in, what is, this modern age of a superstitious society. Her imagery and writing can be found on Instagram: @ashlie.rene

 

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Plant Me in the Soil

Relieve me of this comfort, derived in darkness.
Free me of tradition.
Kick the pedestal out from underneath me,
And this race of lost minds.
Bathe me in the light of dying stars.
Cover me with the chaos of the cosmos.
Bare me down to a naked mind.
Strip me of self-absorption, fear and following.
Face me to the challenge against my biases.
Measure me among the mice, the fish, the microbes.
Toss me into a sea of unfamiliar faces.
Plant me in the soil,
Among unfathomable layers of time.
Wake me up from fantasy,
And inspire me to question.

Cover me in reality.
Tuck me back in underneath the magnetic, flaring stars.