the Vibration

I think perhaps I am dreaming right now,
The story changes it shape
It curls until it has flipped over

The paths before me turn to water

I do not recognize this life,
Save for a few key characters
And the sound of my own voice

Newness

I know it is holy
I feel it

And still I get lost here,
The million bleary memories seem more real to me than this,
This day and this hour
of complete joy.

Joy which is complete as a protein is complete
Atomic assimilation of joy into my chromosomes
Of thank you of darling of how beautiful and Yes

Come closer to me
the crest of all this hoping
is upon me-
I have been reaching
Stretching to pain
For this

For the reconciling of all I have loved and lost
Into one
steady
Rhythm

Moving Toward Lightness

This same life,
only a short time ago,
was like birthing pains
for a child already gone;

but now-
is warm

As though everything has been swelling
to fullness
and wholeness

Evening brings
resilience I have never known.
Kind, steady,
arms tight around me even in sleep

Climb over the rubble,
where the air is cool,
where everything seems to whisper
“Do you not know
that you are innocent?”

And gradually,
the years fall away;
gradually
the grief dissolves-


this same life

open your window

Children are beautiful,
laughter like bells-
bitterness is ugliness.
Bitterness brought by too much
pain, by loss and learned helplessness
and fear.

Beauty is stronger.
I say because I see
delicate prettiness growing into
true resolute brightness-
the lessons of passing suffering
and being reborn
again and again,
stronger, wiser,
face turned toward the sun.

lift me up

exactly what
part
of this body, this history,
this personality
makes me?

I am earth,
brought to my knees by questions, yet
born of the unknown;

Racked with longing,
subatomic emptiness,
formless passion,
living hopefulness.

That which is beautiful, i cannot
touch, yet feel it,
rising.

I breathe in,
clean air tinged with holiness,
and exhale my human dioxide
into space.

This tree, it breathes
conversely as I
breathe,
this Yin,
all beings-
all who share this experience;

inseperable
drops of creation.

let it

in your life
you will lose your mind

as well as
lovers,
lots of money,
your parents,

possibly
a child

and eventually,
you’ll lose your memory too.

But don’t fret, don’t you count the tears-
life is inexhaustible.

Today is here, and you are not yet
gone.

So open your arms,
own nothing, and thank the miracle
that put you here.

river

i am reaching for the mouth of the
silty river basin,
where peace falls like petals,
where peace follows the barefoot peasants,
kissing their ankles
sticking like dust
to the pads of their feet.

Follow me, peace,
sweetness within!
This delicate system of bone
and desire
it still flinches
at kindness.

For my soft body to roll
like an eel
through the absence of fear,
for the ache to cool
like a healing burn-

teach me to sit with hope
and not wane

in your company

What is this pain?
gently
pulling me away from this busy city-

somehow my soul just
o p e n e d u p
as you were speaking;
the tones came rolling in
across my ears
like forgiveness, like dreaming.

Suddenly my heart
stretched wide across my ribcage,
pulled apart by the beauty
of
this
moment.

Come sit down beside me
and listen-
someone nearby is playing a piano,
the notes are telling us to breathe.
Calling to us,
come
and be absolved.

just before sleeping

i am not aware enough to dismiss the memory of your warm body
and so i let it lie beside me and feel the movement of your belly with breathing