Posted in MY POETRY on July 5, 2008 | 1 Comment »
How can we add one more word to it
one more syllable one more
breath to what is already at its
peak of perfection its absolute facets of
the entire crystal reflecting everything
perfectly with no extra membrane
even one smudge of murkiness or
shadow even one throat-clearing
pause of doubt it’s so airtight and so
completely expressed the trillions of
gazillions of perfect bees [...]
Posted in MY POETRY on July 5, 2008 | 2 Comments »
Apothecary jars on shelves of burnished silver
beakers filled with smoke gurgling in the dark
Something must be brewing from these nefarious ingredients
shamans in the depths of shadowy forests might use
Bits of waxed thread amber in its gum form
shedding lovely golden glows on the proceedings
Cotton dipped in liquid light then dabbed on clean surfaces
(I’m not even sure [...]
Posted in MY POETRY on June 28, 2008 | 3 Comments »
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 [...]
Posted in MY POETRY on June 24, 2008 | 1 Comment »
“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 [...]
Posted in MY POETRY on June 17, 2008 | 1 Comment »
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 [...]
Posted in MY POETRY on June 2, 2008 | 4 Comments »
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 [...]
Posted in MY POETRY on May 27, 2008 | 3 Comments »
There’s a chair that whoever sits in it
becomes less proud
Grocery bags tumble their contents
out on the ground
Buildings reflect more sunlight
There’s a doorway that whoever stands in it
becomes more transparent
God’s Light shines through
The rooms we go from and the rooms we
go to are the same
full of illuminated furniture and
wise beings and intelligent conversation
And whoever goes through [...]
Posted in MY POETRY on May 15, 2008 | 1 Comment »
I leap these giant salmon falls
like a vertically charging bull
wild eyes wide and blinkless in my
brute determination to get home
though it cost me my life
to bring life to life and the afterlife
and the whole world is doing the same
in my eyes
Look at it urging upward against the
downrush leap after leap its mouth agape
pulsating crouch springing [...]
Posted in MY POETRY on May 5, 2008 | 5 Comments »
The only real life is the soul life
say what you will
The only real world is the next world
we’ll soon know
The bicycles of the sky disperse into
cloudy drifts
their spokes farther and farther apart
The famous hills and dales of
the earth fall and rise rise and
fall
throwing up snowmen and fire demons
in their congenial upheavals
Once one footing’s established
the rug [...]
Posted in MY POETRY, tagged Add new tag, American Poem, Love Poem, Sufi Poem on April 16, 2008 | 4 Comments »
We all must have our song of departures
for when the long shadow down the road we’re on
coming from in front of us
catches up with us
and covers us like an amorous lover
from head to toe with sultry kisses
then we know we’re going where
all caps are worn backwards
and every window looks in rather than out
at the world
Pools [...]
Posted in MY POETRY on April 1, 2008 | No Comments »
four-gardens.wav
Posted in MY POETRY on April 1, 2008 | 3 Comments »
FOUR GARDENS
Everything’s velvety dark and
warm furry and fuzzy in its
particulars each new vista or room full of
people or not empty or crowded with a
large polished grand piano silent in the
middle and four huge windows on the
four walls looking out into gardens each
one of which is different
One Oriental with a humped bridge over
purply lotus pools
One thickly [...]
Posted in MY POETRY on March 3, 2008 | 5 Comments »
SILVERY RADIANT SONG
Suppose we start with what’s right in
front of us
Piles of books and a blue thermos full of
water
How can we reach from this to a
medieval ship on the high seas full of
levitating saints whose vestments
flap like clouds
or salt flats from the wastes of
Africa where the sea once stood
on all fours like a lowing animal
but [...]
Posted in MY POETRY on February 25, 2008 | 2 Comments »
MOUSE FEET
Teeny-tiny mouse feet run along my ceiling
in rapidly fluttery pitty-pats
God’s dimension is so vast all the
ticking clocks face sideways
There’s a sound in the universe so pure
only one of us can hear it
Way at the end there
that silhouette of someone
standing against the moon
When you lift pen to paper
the savannah floods with light
If we’re only visiting [...]
Posted in MY POETRY on February 18, 2008 | 4 Comments »
PEWTER MOONLIGHT
Old men are writing poems
by pewter moonlight
They live in different parts of the world
but their pen unites them
Their blood is as thin as rivers
after winter floods and the
springtime dries them
Each of them writes his ode
to pewter moonlight
Their eyes ache from peering deep
into lamplight
They’ve seen the comings and goings
and sheep led to slaughter
The night no [...]
Posted in MY POETRY on February 4, 2008 | 1 Comment »
Posted in MY POETRY on February 4, 2008 | 4 Comments »
THE WINE WE LOVE
The wine we love is the wine of the spirit
The wine we avoid is the wine of the body
Though the wine of the body lead to spiritual bliss
its dregs and bitters are magical temptation
Shattering the glass is the way to the pure wine
though the glass itself is the wine and the
wine itself [...]
Posted in MY POETRY on January 22, 2008 | 1 Comment »
Posted in MY POETRY on January 22, 2008 | 8 Comments »
THE DRUNKEN SOLDIER
The drunken soldier broke down
the wrong door
Inside was a circle of saints
lifted off the ground
To the sound of gunfire
a really supernal yellow light
shone round them
His jaw dropped
and his heart stopped
In the dark of the room
he saw his place
At the cost of so much blood
so little decency
The saints admitted him
to their convocation
The rest of [...]
Posted in MY POETRY on January 16, 2008 | 3 Comments »
LAKE ON A HILL
Is a lake on a hill closer to God than a
lake on a plain with its
bright reflective waters?
Is the dial on the watch of a saint
closer to true time than the
dials of the rest of us?
Is the night longer or shorter for
one who believes or one who disbelieves
that at the farthest end [...]
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