LAYERS OF LIFE: An Exploration of Samaskaric Sheaths

	Many spirits dwell in each soul,
	not as a single flame, but a vast symphony,
	with onion-like layers, concentric and bright,
	like deep tree rings, hidden from sight.

	Though our surface displays familiar maps,
	in which names, habits, and histories are wrapped,
	our interiors contain vast, verdant shores—
	vaults of lost whispers, secrets galore,
	echoing uncharted designs,
	as memories manifest through tangled lines.
	
	All living things are time machines:
	polychronistic pieces of art encased in genes
	painted, then scraped, then painted anew,
	redefining the meaning of "true."

	Within the hard shells of adults we find,
	the restless spirits of youths are intertwined,
	and beneath that stirs more ancient still:
	a primordial inheritance,
	older than language,
	older than memory,
	older than the self we claim to be.


Ron:   (making a sudden, abrasive burp after listening to the poem) This kind of transcendental 
       drivel has been expressed a thousand times already. Why keep raking through the same cold ashes?

Lex:   (lingering over a slow sip of herbal tea) Some truths are like prayer bells: they do not 
       exist to be heard once, but to be struck repeatedly so their resonance enters 
       our awareness.

Ron:   (with practiced sarcasm) People have to discover “truth” on their own. What we
       call "truth" is merely a mental construct. Without the right scaffolding, understanding 
       remains on flimsy ground. That is why most preachers are ineffectual. In time, perhaps
       truth will reveal itself. Yet is that notion "we have the truth" itself a notion?

Linda: (shrugging lightly, eyes still on the image) Who knows? Time strips away all constructs.
       Maybe that is the only truth? Eventually, everything eventually disappears . . . 

Lis:   (with an ironic laugh) That makes this entire conversation inconsequential. 


=====================================================================================
from _Last Poems: Lost Poems_ by T Newfields
SUMMARY:  A poetic meditation on layered identity and time, unfolding into a dialogue questioning
          whether art and philosophy transmit truth—or simply preserve beauty and resonance against forgetting.
KEYWORDS: samskaras, life layers, polychronicity, layered existence, layers of existence, 
          ancestral memories, human identity, spiritual archaeology
          
Author: T Newfields [Nitta Hirou / Huáng Yuèwǔ] (b. 1955 - )
Begun:  1980 Port Angeles, WA (USA) ✠ Finished: 2026 Shizuoka (Japan)
Creative Commons License: Attribution. {{CC-BY-4.0}} 

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TRANSLATIONS

DEUTSCH:  https://www.tnewfields.info/de/s.htm
ESPAÑOL:  https://www.tnewfields.info/es/capas.htm
NIHONGO:  https://www.tnewfields.info/jp/inochi.htm