“They [the neurological conceptions of personhood] have argued that the human brain… is evolved for a collective form of life… and the formation of groups both small and large to pursue common aims.”
Rose, N. Abi-Rached, J., 2012. Neuro: the new brain sciences and the management of the mind. Princeton University Press. (pg 226)
“She says the tree
Is stationary and multitudinous in her chest, untouched
And skeletal, almost like metal, in its network against the sky.”
‘Duality’
Rogers, Pattiann, 1940 – The tattooed lady in the garden. Wesleyan University Press. (p. 15)
Each body has many deep and unyielding roots
that reach to the earth, whether the eyes can see the branches’
silhouette against the dewy sky,
or its forces are hidden in spectral starlight of spirit. The patient arches
of these unfurling footsteps
begin to braid together,
finding, as they join, their common direction
which is slowly unwinding
in an ever widening spiral
which reaches out into the neuronal hands,
seeking to touch, and be held
in the rivers caught in sharp relief
that flow through butterflies’ wings as they soar
over eyes to show the branching
fractals innate on the earth, and in the trees
and in each fire filled body that creates
and destroys, and are created and destroyed
on the skin of the planet which heaves and rolls
its life blood underfoot to remind all beings with roots
of the finite blessing of this time, and this space.