Forgiveness

Tap at my window,
urgent with thoughts
that will pacify the ways my heart
speaks into the darkness
of this night.

There are so many ways
to rectify all the wrongs
that haunt my waking and sleeping
by listening to the crickets
and watching the moon rise
slowly into the stars.

I am breathless
knowing I am not alone.

Untitled II

Sometimes I am
the intrepid interloper
into my own life,
this covert mission of awakening
as if I am alien to all these days
launching grief
into the places
where kindness thrives
in the gardens
among the flowers
and inside the pods of peas
and the lengths of spinach
on a stem.

I have forgotten
after so long
that I don't speak the language
and have no way of gathering hope
into the baskets of experience
that are disguised and carried home
from the village center.

It is a relief
to know
that I am
sustained
and will not
be discovered
until after the moon rises
and blankets the earth
with silvery silence.

Sanctuary

My home-
the territory I have claimed
for myself-
is full of the energy
of the ways I have crafted
the beginning of something new.

 We pray
and light candles
at the altar of my table.

We sing and dance
in the practice of leonine ways-
strong and full of voice
that  rings true with mighty force
of will and kindness for the world.

My slavish ways to flowers
and elders
and my children
can not to be helped.

These beings
are full of wisdom.

This place
my sanctuary
of peace.

The Fraternity of Avian Beings

Each morning
at my window,
my face swollen
from the night of slumber
and succulent dreaming,
coffee hot in my mug
and mind fresh with thinking,
I surrender my attachment to the earth
as it has come to hold me still
and join the fraternity of avian beings
beckoning me
from just outside the glass
and wooden nest
I have built for myself
on the edge of the dancing grasses
and light of this field.

In this place
I sing,
not for a mate
or to mark my territory,
but rather
for the joy
of my life
and the honorable gift
that can only be given away
when the voice
and the heart
are taken into flight.

Crescent Angel

 When the moon is high,
glide past joy
in that delicate glacial light
to the edges of the crescent angel.

Be courageous.
Let  your heart sing
knowing the depths
of your soul
have been given away,

the crevasses
of greed
gone,

the mountain
of kindness
ascended

and nothing left
of your spirit
remains
to be desired.

Umbra

I am a shadow of myself
as I ascend into the market
of the streets
after the silence of mind
in meditation.

I stop at the edge of the world
to buckle my soul into a safe place
for the path to enlightened dreaming
smiling, knowing all the others
who have made their way
before I will join them

chant with so much joy
as the prayers pour
through a voice
that is the light
behind the darkness;
the impression
of the hand
at the small of the back
of a partner
ready to dance.

Know that our play
with the shadow puppets of this life
is the abundant love we wish
to light at the wick and wax
 of each day.

The eclipse of heart
over thinking
is almost more
than I can carry alone.
Black is, after all,
the garmet
of all color
gathered
in one
weaving
of space
between the stars.

Fool's Errand

Deplete the reason.
Make the mind go wanting
in a whorl of  feeling-
the great unknown-

like the water rushing and spinning
toward the opening
of a funnel,
ready to syphon every drop
of kindness
from the day,

only to discover
the velvet comfort
of soothing words
that bypass logic
and the ways letters
find cruel paths
to make the strong
stumble and stutter
on a fool's errand

near the place
we always bargain
with joy.