R.E. Slater - What Dies Within Us While We Live

Illustration by R.E. Slater and ChatGPT

What Dies Within Us While We Live

by R.E. Slater

Death is not the greatest loss in life -

  the greatest loss,
  is what dies inside of us,
  while we still live.

It is in how we speak to one another -
  or how we do not speak,
  not in the truths we soften,
  nor the trembling silences we keep.

But in the violence that has numbed us -
  the images we scroll past,
  the soulless disturbances we feel,

  that can no longer can be named.

There are so many things that numb us daily -
  the small surrenders we make,
  the barely noticed we chose not to see,

  the unwanted thoughts that flood us.

It is not only in the wounds we suffer -
  but the parts of ourselves we have laid down,
  to just keep moving,

  in-and-out of each moment.

We lose when kindness goes unspoken -
  when truth is withheld for comfort,
  when injustice is ignored,

  when indifference holds our tongues.

We lose something when we stop feeling -
  when we no longer expect goodness,
  when we forget how to be moved,

  when our tears have dried up.

And in the numbing traces there remains -

  a memory of who we once were,

  before we learned to close ourselves off,

  to cease to feel.

Something that waits within us -

  restless,

  undying,

  angry at our silence.

To live deeply is to awaken -

  to feel deeply not merely endure,

  to participate in life around us,

  to remain no longer silent.

To gently,

  deliberately,
  learn to speak.

These would be words enough.

Words one might live by.

R.E. Slater

April 16, 2026

@copyright R.E. Slater Publications

all rights reserved

Authors Note

There are so many things in life that numb us daily, that quiet the better voice within us, that teach us to look away when we should look closer; to harden ourselves when we were meant to remain open.

They are not only the wounds we suffer, but the parts of ourselves we surrender in order to keep moving through pain and hardship.

Yet we lose something when kindness goes unspoken, when truth is withheld for comfort, when injustice goes ignored.

We lose something when we stop listening to each other's pain, when we no longer expect goodness from one another, when we forget how to be moved, to feel, to ache.

But know that what has quieted in our souls has not left. Even in the numbing, there remains a trace, a memory, of who we were before we learned from others how to close ourselves off.

And perhaps the deeper work of living is not merely to learn to endure and be numb - but to notice when we have gone silent within, and gently, deliberately, begin to speak again.

To feel - and be willing to awakened to harm that truth, beauty, and love might live again.

R.E. Slater - A King of Folly

A King of Folly

by R.E. Slater

For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer,

he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror;

for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he

has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was.

- James 1.23-24 (ESV)

To the King of Folly whose wisdom
    runs dry like rivers in drought -

Whose follies lie worthless as deserts

    absorbing their own acid rains.

Whose fractured thoughts echo

    daily sycophant dreams,

Warped and estranged in unholy

    flattery's indulgent haste.

Who build’st golden, gilded towers

    on the shifting sands of turning tides -

Proclaiming seering mockeries

    that stab and hate unbowed knees.

Every word a poison that chokes and rots,

each lie a festering wound meant to kill.

Thy haughty counsel strides

   heaven and earth in mighty roar -

Tracing the mortal lives of men

    across its directionless glare.

Thy pomposity soars to the heavens

    mocking reason, caution, or claim -

And vanity stand'st fetid chambers in

    uplifted chin and waggling tongue.

Believng all the world is thine

    to remake in graven image,

thy bluster its throne

    'neath a crown of derision.

Across mere span of months and years

    sense stands aside in exhausted despair -

Though truth refuses any such games yet

    its speech falls hollow hardened souls.

So here’s to the Greatest Marvel of our Age -

Hail, to our King of High Folly,

    exalted and lifted up,

A born deceiver - our man of lawlessness,

    untamed and untameable.

A chosen nation's man-made golden calf

    whose false signs and wonders -

Rises its golden altar of unholy deeds

    and ruinous destructions.

Hail, O' King,

Hail, O' Nation,

Unwise, and

Alone.

R.E. Slater

April 16, 2026

@copyright R.E. Slater Publications

all rights reserved

R.E. Slater - The Woman Who Tends

Illustration by R.E. Slater and ChatGPT

The Woman Who Tends

by R.E. Slater and ChatGPT

There's so many different reasons why we need old trees.

They sequester carbon. They create habitat that younger

trees cannot provide. [Aesthetically], they carry a unique

beauty in their old age. - Beth Moon, photographer

What saith the woman

  who tendeth another’s garden -
  whose hands nurture what she does not own,
  whose labor blooms in another’s name?

She speaks in the language of soil,
  in the patience of seasons that do not remember her.
Her fingers learn the roots of foreign things,
  tracing their thirst into the borrowed ground.

Morning finds her before the early light has settled,
  as shadow among the soils calling her kin.
She waters what will not bear her name,
  prunes what will never speak her story.

Yet, there is a knowing

  beneath her tending care -

The receiving earth does not ask
  who owns the seed.
But ingests
  what is given.

And in the quiet

  between wind and breath
she feels within the quieting earth -
  a loosening, an understanding.

Neither of duty,
  nor of boundary -

But of calling,

  as living soul to living soul.

For what is a garden
  but a crossing of lives -
root into soil,
hand into growth,
self into what is not-self?

The toiler gathers no harvest for herself,
  yet something within her ripens -

Not fruit,
not flower,
but a widening of understanding.

A slow re-awakening

  that care is its own belonging.

And when the evening shadows

  lengthen across the spreading beds,
and last lights linger on leaf and stem,
  there, she pauses -

not as owner,
not as stranger,
but as living witness.

Where garden and gardener

  for a moment,

answer one to the other -

  We are connected

  by our entangling roots.

R.E. Slater and ChatGPT

April 10, 2026

@copyright R.E. Slater Publications

all rights reserved

Author's Notes

The garden is more than metaphor. It is a site of processual becoming in which reality is encountered as a relational field; soulful identity is understood as participation; and meaning arises through lived encounter. Together, these several elements suggest a form of lived, and embodied, processual realism.

- R.E. Slater

Attribution Notes

The opening thematic and stylistic inspiration is drawn from the authored work, "Trees and Other Entanglements," by Tasneem Khan, whose sensibilities are also reflected in the documentary work associated with the same title.

The initial four lines are a creative reconstruction inspired by Khan’s prose style and are not presented as a direct quotation.

The poem itself is an original composition, written in the mood, cadence, and thematic field of Khan’s work. Its visual and narrative interpretations give particular attention to themes of displacement and belonging, labor and invisibility, relational identity, and quiet interior of rupture and transformation.

- R.E. Slater

Trees and Other Entanglements

HBO Documentary

"Trees and Other Entanglements," is an 2023 HBO Original Documentary by filmmaker Irene Taylor  showcasing the deeply human tale of mankind's relationship with the natural world - and with one another. It premiered on December 12 on (HBO) Max. In the film Taylor explores the deep, symbiotic relationship between humans and trees through several interconnected stories, including a bonsai master, a photographer, a mother protecting forests, and a man planting saplings, all while weaving in personal narratives about family, loss, and survival - including the director's own struggle with Alzheimer's.

---

Tasneem Khan Bio

Tasneem Khan is a biologist, educator, photographer, and interdisciplinary storyteller whose work moves between ecology, art, and experiential learning. Trained in marine zoology, she has spent over a decade developing programs in conservation, environmental education, and creative science communication.

Khan’s work does not sit neatly within a single category. She is not only an “author” in the conventional sense, but rather a field-based thinker and creative practitioner whose writing emerges from lived ecological engagement. This helps explain why her voice often reads less like conventional prose and more like compressed, contemplative poetry shaped by environment and experience.

Her career includes significant field-based work with the Andaman and Nicobar Islands Environmental Team, where she helped design and lead immersive ecological learning initiatives.

Khan is also a co-founder of EARTH CoLab, an initiative focused on outdoor education, ecological awareness, and interdisciplinary collaboration.

Across her writing, photography, and educational projects, she explores themes of:

• human-nature relationships
• place-based learning
• ecological consciousness
• relational and experiential knowledge

Her literary work, including Trees and Other Entanglements, reflects this same sensibility, blending scientific awareness with poetic, reflective prose.

---

Links & Presence

• 🌐 EARTH CoLab (project site): http://earthcolab.com
• 📷 Instagram (creative + writing): https://www.instagram.com/t.a.s.n.e.e.m.k.h.a.n/
• 📝 Author/profile page: https://jlrexplore.com/authors/tasneem-khan
• 🌿 Nature inFocus (articles & photography): https://www.natureinfocus.in/author/tasneem-khan

---

Where to Read Her

Here is a thoughtful entry sequence, moving from ecological grounding to literary expression.

1. Foundational Voice (Ecology & Reflection)

• Nature writing and essays via Nature inFocus
  → https://www.natureinfocus.in/author/tasneem-khan

These pieces show:

• her observational discipline
• her sensitivity to landscape
• the roots of her later literary tone

---

2. Interdisciplinary & Reflective Writing

• Author page and contributions:
  → https://jlrexplore.com/authors/tasneem-khan
• Collaborative/essay platforms (e.g., Dark ’n’ Light):
  → https://darknlight.substack.com

Here you begin to see:

• ecological thought blending with philosophy
• short-form reflective prose approaching poetry

---

3. Core Literary Work

• Trees and Other Entanglements

This is where everything converges:

• ecology becomes metaphor
• metaphor becomes identity
• identity becomes relational inquiry

Read this slowly. It is not plot-driven in the conventional sense. It is atmosphere-driven.

---

4. Ongoing Creative Presence

• Instagram (visual + textual fragments):
  → https://www.instagram.com/t.a.s.n.e.e.m.k.h.a.n/

This functions almost like:

• a living notebook
• a stream of images + thoughts
• fragments that echo her larger themes

---

R.E. Slater - Between the Tomb and Morning

An olive tree in the morning planted for peace and endurance

Between the Tomb and Morning

by R.E. Slater and ChatGPT

Nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
neither shall they learn war anymore.
- Isaiah 2:4

God invites to the home of peace

and guides whom He wills to a straight path.

- Qur’an 10:25

Peace I leave with you;

my peace I give to you.

- John 14:27

Across the broken earth

its stones weigh upon the ground.

Cities burn -
where prophets once walked

whether in Iran,
or Lebanon,
in Israel,
or America.

Fear speaks louder than hope,

and grief has learned

too many names.

This is not a distant sorrow

far removed from memory -

It is the same stony soils
where Abraham learned to listen,
where Moses trembled before the fire,
where Mary said yes,
where Jesus was crucified,
where the call to prayer still rises -
over broken streets and griefs.

The same dust
that tasted blood
tastes it again

too often

too many times.

And still Easter comes
And cries remains.

Allahu Akbar - "God is greater"

than the violence we make.

Shema Yisrael - "The Lord is One"

even when we hate and divide.

Χριστός ἀνέστη! - "Christ is risen!"

for in hope, or what's left,

life refuses the final word of death.

Together, these are not

competing truths -

but ancient truths echoing

a deeper call

that God is not owned

by any one nation;

not contained
nor confined

by hardened beliefs

that God is not triumph,

but interruption -

not certainty,

but question.

The question?

What does it mean
to have God present

without violence -

without wound -

without tears?

The Holy One -

known by many names -

still meets us

in our wounds

the Risen One bears our scars -
the Merciful One knows our frailty -

the Eternal One calls us to remember.

Even as the voice of his Spirit

moves through

synagogue, mosque, and church:

Return.

Remember.

Become new.

Learn to love again.

These ancient words

have been spoken
into every divided land

across the earth:

“Peace be with you.”

“Shalom.”

“Salaam.”

Hear their summons.

Repent their misuse.

Lay down the stones.
Step from the lifeless tombs

  we have made for one another.

Let resurrection
be stronger than revenge.

Let rahma mercy -

interrupt memory.

Let tzedek justice -

be guided by compassion.

Let agape love -

outlast remembrance.

For if God is One -
then no people are meant for division.

If God is Merciful -
then no life is beyond care.

If Christ is risen -
then no grave is the end.

 - But neither is peace automatic.

It must be chosen

again

and again

and again

and again.

So this Easter morning,
in a world of hatred and fear

do not deny the darkness.

But let us each walk into it
carrying a different light.

A light known in many tongues,
yet born of the same heavy longing -

that death will not have the final word.

Let us together repeat -

even here,
even now:

God is greater.

God is One.

Christ is risen.

Let the world

begin again.

R.E. Slater and ChatGPT

April 5, 2026

@copyright R.E. Slater Publications

all rights reserved

Evening to morning. Let there be rest. Let their be peace.

A Prayer for Torn Worlds

A Tri-Faith Easter Meditation for a World in Conflict

by R.E. Slater and ChatGPT

God is Love. - I John 4.8

O God of many names -

  God of Abraham,
  God of mercy and memory,
  God revealed in compassion and قرب (nearness),

  God known in Christ as love enduring -

We gather in a world still trembling.

Where fear divides,
where anger hardens,
where violence speaks too quickly
and peace too slowly.

You who are One -
  teach us to see one another
  beyond the names we fear.

You who are Merciful -
  soften what has become unyielding in us.

You who are Living -
  breathe again into what feels lost, buried, or beyond repair.

In lands torn by history and hurt -
whether Iran, Lebanon, Israel, or America -
  let remembrance become wisdom,
  not weapon.

  Let justice be guided by compassion.
  Let truth be spoken without hatred.
  Let grief find its voice without becoming vengeance.

And where hearts have grown weary,
plant again the quiet courage of peace.

As Christ passed through death into life,
as Your word calls all people toward peace -
so move among us now:

not above our divisions,
but within them.

Not instead of us,
but through us.

Until swords are laid down,
until neighbors are no longer strangers,
until peace is no longer spoken as hope alone -
but lived.

Amen.

R.E. Slater and ChatGPT

April 5, 2026

@copyright R.E. Slater Publications

all rights reserved