The Eternal Sounds

When I retire for the night,
fresh with timid words
and exhausted from the strain of the day,
let me slog slowly
into the darkness
weaving stars
and sunshine
into my dreaming.

I jostle all day long
like a wagon full of heavy stones
and when I finally arrive at my place of rest
I am eternally embossed with prayers of gratitude.

My face is pocked with the weariness of the world.
My heart is the filter for all that must be done.

Rock me slowly in the twilight
and the eternal sounds of God's voice
will sing to us all.

False Front

The charged heat that arrives in the body
with the force of aging weaponry
on my doorstep again. War on youth
cannot be submerged for long.

This bottleneck of hormones
is part of the passage
from the serene flow of blood
that rises and falls by the phases
of the moon to nothingness.

I become a mannequin of myself again,
soul walking out of the body
just to survive the stiff and false front
that life has become.

And the breath--
is just the fire
that will remind me
where home really lives.

Finally

Finally 70 degrees
I planned to play hooky,
dig in the dirt,
play whiffle ball,
and make left overs
because it is easier.

Why squander a day like today indoors
after a long and dark winter
that everyone complained would never end?

In haste, I changed my tires to all season
in hopes of driving away the cold and whiteness.
It is a gamble to plant sweet peas and lily of the valley
on the same day, but I've thrown caution to the wind
and even harvested a tiny burn to my nose and cheeks.

Freckles aren't far
from this pink
and sun drenched day.

Yoga Class

Such a rich and anonymous cuisine
I taste in this flexible body

posed in saline rich skin
and arching, riveted
to the soul.

I am more alive
in this simple movement

than any other nourishment
I have ever let pass into
my hungry and thirsty
self.

When He Called My Name

When he called my name
I was drunk with incense, oils,
and the volume of loss,
my heart searching everywhere
for the warmth of a body
gone cold.

When he called my name
I imagined illusion
and the way the mind plays tricks
like a hand grasping for something stable
to prevent a fall, the quizzical game
with no quick answer to questions.

When he called my name
it took everything the teacher had taught me
to conquer my fear of all that I did not know,
to dismiss my doubt, look at the risen man,
and to answer in the voice I was trained
to lift up.

When he called my name
I cast off my blindness
and walked for the first time
into the brilliance of God.

Simple Flight of Souls

Swing widely and disturb the eternal
like another angel on the trapeze who releases herself
into nothingness.

It doesn't take much pressure
or prayer after the gasp of relief
to believe that love is a simple flight of souls
when you watch beauty dance
in the coming and going of birds at first light
from the edges of protection
into the vulnerability of space.

Take your pen
and write on the blank pages of your diary
about forgiveness and perhaps the Beloved
will respond with a smiling truth.

Know your heart
and what devotion requires
and you will never launch skyward
alone.

Moon Rise

One day flannel will not be armor
used as a guardian of buttons

and instead be ready to explore
the broken jigsaw puzzle of quiet
and moons that rise after
the fire is started.

The radio will play music
to dance to
and the stars
will forget themselves
and fall down
like rain.