Poem: Knot of Gold

The Prophet took people of abject poverty
and strewed rubies at their feet
There was no glass in the Prophet’s windows
for any brick to break
In each heart he ties a knot of gold
whose two ends make eternity’s
radiant reclining figure eight
gazed upon by God
We can stand in the door he made in
our being or stride through it into [...]

Poem: The Name of the Rose

“The name of the rose on her lips as she
sank into darkness was…”
but the dream phrase left upon waking
was cut off before the crucial word was
heard and only the teaser remembered
so that I wonder at times at human
knowledge also that we’re often left with
just the teaser that is so pregnant with
meaning but whose pith [...]

(from The Nation, June 30, 2008 )
I sing to the last the equalities modern or old,
I sing the endless finales of things,
I say Nature continues, glory continues
I praise with electric voice,
For I do not see one imperfection in the universe,
And I do not see one cause or result lamentable at last in the universe.
______________
Walt Whiteman, [...]

Poem (text & audio): If All the Wood in the World

if-all-the-wood   (audio)

If all the wood in the world were to sing
and every rose gave a political speech
and every cloud took pity on its neighbor
and every stone composed an epic poem about
being a stone
and every dust mote were aware of its
mortality as it lay or drifted onto the
curved or flat surfaces of things
and the blind archer [...]

Poem: Singular Shadow

A singular shadow stood on a road
and scratched its shadow head
wondering which road to go down
toward what shadowy goal
He tried to call out
but his voice was merely an echo
“If I could only be more substantial”
he thought to himself yet as the day waned
he became less so
He was shocked to see himself become
even more vague and [...]

Poem: Angelic Physics

Angelic Physics (audio reading)

The coolest part is in the center of a flame
The driest part is in the center of the sea
The highest part when the depths are home
The most healed part when all is broken
The whitest part when blackness surrounds
The quietest part in the middle of sound
The fastest part in absolute stillness
The sweetest part [...]