This introspective, philosophical poem was inspired by the book 'An Immense World' by Ed Yong who discusses and dissects different animals' "umwelt," a German term coined by Jakob Von Uexküll in 1909 to mean the surroundings an animal can sense and experience. I wonder what it would be like to experience life as different beings and question the very essence of what it is to be.
I wonder what its like to
Be a different me.
To live life in the depths
And chills of the sea.
What is it like from the
Atmosphere to just be?
To float straight through the earth
Does it feel free?
Or to have a head
But no body?
What would it be like to be
Another animal as I pee?
I wonder, if I don’t live in this skin
What does it mean to be me?
How fast is the world when I’m
Flying like a manatee?
What is it like from inside
The experience of a tree?
How does it feel to swim
Through the soils in New Guinea?
I wonder what it would be like
To live in the hottest vents as a jelly.
Does green seem green
To a jigger flea?
What is it like to move
My limbs as a corgi?
Would the forest feel so big
If I were an algae?
What would I take for granted
Being another kind of me?
Would I habituate to
My new life eventually?
How would life as a
Human feel then to carry?
Going from umwelt to umwelt
What would I glory?
Would I want to ever return
To this entity?
If I could, I’d still like to
Experience life very differently.
Maybe I’d be so sated
I’d feel transcendently.
Or maybe I’d long to
Experience life intergalactically.
Is it possible I’d feel instead
Agonizingly lonely?
By knowing others, I’m able to
Know me more deeply.
Can humans share
Their umwelts more thoroughly?
Could I share my own
Familiar inputs as otherworldly?
Is it posible to document
What I might not even see?
What if we treated human varieties
As notable scientifically?
And explore our own
Umwelts more individually.
Even becoming more enamored
With others multiculturally.
Exposing other proprioceptions
Beyond those of of disability.
What if we lived every day
Lost in curiosity?
And shared our stories
Of perception authentically?
What would we gain
Perpetually?
Comments