Chased
By the shadow of a cloud,
A hair's breadth
From eclipse
By solid darkness,
Liquid gold,
Sweeps across
The vast field
Of time.
Her brush,
Eternity's horizon,
Her medium,
Light,
Framed,
Only
By this moment,
Love's workings
Unfold.
RUN OF THE MILL
Sails turning,
Wheels churning,
The mill complains,
The mill complains,
Unaware
That its real yearning
That its real yearning
Still remains,
To feel the will
To feel the will
Of water and air.
DUCKS & DRAKES
Chosen with care,
A rounded flatness,
Befit to spin,
These stones,
These words.
Set in motion,
Loosed,
To a brief,
Rhythmic flight,
A skip, a skid, a skim,
Bouncing out
From the shore,
Yet all too fast,
Only the footprints linger on,
An arrow-head
Of expanding rings,
Point toward the last,
Marking the place,
The moment of sinking,
As words that play
Upon our thinking,
Can only trip
Across the skin,
Until, all spent,
They drop within,
Beneath the superficial layer,
Heading down,
To bed of prayer.
MIRACLE
As a shell upon the ear
Close pressed will bring the sea,
Within my heart, so faint yet clear,
Is whispering to me
A voice in kind to silence near,
A zephyr stirring constantly,
As soft as only I may hear
Yet recognise with certainty.
Insistent as a drum,
The burden of its message holds
A distant, sacred sum,
Another region of my soul
Is calling me to home,
For it be one, yet not the whole
Of all it may become.
BREAKFAST
The unseen breakfast
Deep communion
Patience
A silken stillness
Worn by the cat
Hunger appeased
Spoon by spoon
Tea circling
A clock
Stakes out the silence.
THE GARDEN
Walking the garden of my mind,
Every moment,
Might I find
As a kite to fly,
Each wakeful one -
On currents, rising,
Kissed by the sun,
Gifts of warm possibility,
Pulling up playfully
Higher than high,
Tugging and lifted
Beyond to the sky,
Where today's but a whisper
Down in the trees,
Of wishes unfolding
Blown on by a breeze,
Where dreams can begin,
And reason descends
From along the sharp ridge
Where the garden ends.
BEHOLD
Where lies the beauty of a rose,
If not arising up in you?
And where the course a river flows
Beyond that source to know it true?
Then nature's art is none at all
Save we distill the greater part,
As music charms no vacant hall,
Thus, love fills an absent heart.
THE POINT
Tomorrow tries
To stare at me
With its unseeing eyes,
I am a threat still,
A predator
To be fooled yet again
By the blind roundels
Worn on its wings.
Yet, there it is,
To stare at me
With its unseeing eyes,
I am a threat still,
A predator
To be fooled yet again
By the blind roundels
Worn on its wings.
Yet, there it is,
Tomorrow,
Impaled,
Impaled,
By the fine points
Of the conditions it made,
The ludicrous dreams
It carried in its heart,
Pinned to the plump,
Dusty velvet
In a collector's drawer.
Those lifeless wings
Will fly no more,
Their promise
Of the conditions it made,
The ludicrous dreams
It carried in its heart,
Pinned to the plump,
Dusty velvet
In a collector's drawer.
Those lifeless wings
Will fly no more,
Their promise
Broken yesterday.
BLASPHEMY
If we could glimpse that secret,
Then conjour up a name,
Approaching a likeness
To destiny's beam,
Before the prism splits apart,
That sole spring of diversity,
The unwritten prelude
To all liberty,
To each luxurious moment
Of fanciful denial,
Every conceit of the human heart,
Would we dare speak
That word of words,
Set amongst
All those we share,
And pretend our understanding?
PRECIOUS
Precious is unchanged by time,
One moment, or a thousand years,
Best left behind while wishing more,
And weeping still sheds precious tears.
One moment, or a thousand years,
Best left behind while wishing more,
And weeping still sheds precious tears.
MATRYOSHKA
Profound yet simple
Fractal cell,
Within, without
Each nesting shell,
I am one,
And one the same,
But answer to
Another name,
And wearing but
The thinnest veil,
Identity,
Disguised by scale,
I exist
As large or small,
As heart or home,
Throughout them all.
Fractal cell,
Within, without
Each nesting shell,
I am one,
And one the same,
But answer to
Another name,
And wearing but
The thinnest veil,
Identity,
Disguised by scale,
I exist
As large or small,
As heart or home,
Throughout them all.
NONE OTHER
There is none other,
Sister, Brother,
Watching now
From out those eyes,
There is none other,
Father, Mother,
All of life
Within you lies,
And none who question
Find that name
In liberty
So unprescribed,
Yet blesséd are
To ask the same
In love
So vast and undenied,
There is none other,
Sister, Brother,
Watching now
From out those eyes,
There is none other,
Father, Mother,
All of life
Within you lies.
Sister, Brother,
Watching now
From out those eyes,
There is none other,
Father, Mother,
All of life
Within you lies,
And none who question
Find that name
In liberty
So unprescribed,
Yet blesséd are
To ask the same
In love
So vast and undenied,
There is none other,
Sister, Brother,
Watching now
From out those eyes,
There is none other,
Father, Mother,
All of life
Within you lies.
ARROWS
I have but one arrow left,
Unspent,
In its quiver,
The very same
That bristled with passions,
Some which flew at phantoms,
Falling wide and wild
To places unknown,
Others piercing their chosen mark,
But all of these,
I'm now outgrown,
Save this, the last,
Amuses me -
Though once buried
In that crowded place,
Biding for its time,
I can see
That all along,
Its target was already found,
And it shall stay
Upon my back
To never meet the bow,
For this new passion,
Happiness,
Is all I need to know.
Unspent,
In its quiver,
The very same
That bristled with passions,
Some which flew at phantoms,
Falling wide and wild
To places unknown,
Others piercing their chosen mark,
But all of these,
I'm now outgrown,
Save this, the last,
Amuses me -
Though once buried
In that crowded place,
Biding for its time,
I can see
That all along,
Its target was already found,
And it shall stay
Upon my back
To never meet the bow,
For this new passion,
Happiness,
Is all I need to know.
LOVE STONE
Tides never cease to come and go
Or draw back with a sigh,
Nor stays the peace,
My spirits flow
From sinking low
To rising high.
My heart
As if a pebble thrown
Caught fast upon that sloping shore,
First rolling up,
Then tumbling down,
Polished,
Till a stone no more -
By waves that move too deep inside
To ever understand,
But prove me brave to never hide -
Just one of countless grains of sand.
BRIDGE OF JOY
A bridge of joy
Spanning the fathomless divide,
Built of no more
Than the shimmering of souls,
Sharing whispers of secrets,
Deeply felt but only half known,
A silent and invisible communion,
But irrepressibly so,
Incandescent in its way,
A radiation
That soaks like a fine rain,
Into every pore,
Enlivening,
Quickening,
Awakening
Dormant, waiting hearts,
With hope,
In the certainty
That what has passed across
Is real,
The soft footfall
Of lives, kept apace
In parallel worlds.
Spanning the fathomless divide,
Built of no more
Than the shimmering of souls,
Sharing whispers of secrets,
Deeply felt but only half known,
A silent and invisible communion,
But irrepressibly so,
Incandescent in its way,
A radiation
That soaks like a fine rain,
Into every pore,
Enlivening,
Quickening,
Awakening
Dormant, waiting hearts,
With hope,
In the certainty
That what has passed across
Is real,
The soft footfall
Of lives, kept apace
In parallel worlds.