Sears Tower

[Jim Wilson]

Sears Tower

Years ago I worked in the Sears Tower;
At that time the tallest building in the world,
At that time it wasn’t even finished,
Construction continued on the top floors
Where the city looked small and diminished
And distant parks looked like single flowers.

I do not remember any flowers
In the countless corridors of the Tower.
Flowers looked out of place and diminished
In the technologically sealed world
Consisting of elevators and floors,
Corridors and doors that never finished.

Though things look solid they are soon finished;
Petals that are falling from some flowers
Landing one by one on a wooden floor.
Things are like the Tarot’s Blasted Tower;
A change of perspective on our whole world,
From distant space it will look diminished.

Sometimes our lives seem small and diminished,
Like there’s nothing left, that all is finished;
But in unexplored regions of the world
There is beauty in some unseen flowers
And glacier-carved granite cliffs that tower
Above a forest on the valley floor.

Before there were walls, before roofs and floors,
Before our lives were timed and diminished,
Before there were words, before the Tower
Of Babel was completed and finished,
Spaciousness bloomed into countless flowers,
Into countless dreams and numberless worlds.

Is there anyone who comprehends the world?
The vastness of the cosmos leaves me floored.
The whole world is but a single flower
The source of which is never diminished,
Whose beauty never fades, is never finished
Like an eternal flame in a distant tower.

A crystal tower reflecting the whole world,
From the smallest flower to everything that’s finished –
We walk on floors of emptiness that cannot be diminished.