POEMS READ AT THE SACRED SPACE 5th ANNIVERSARY MAY 3, 2009

THE TURNING

The attorney in the wide black coat turned
and the chef in the tall white hat
and the ballet dancer in fluted pink tulle
and the sword swallower in tight striped jacket
also turned

And the pancake seller in his rainbow shirt
and the school children in identical charcoal jumpers
and the parrot trainer nude to the waist and the cobbler
all turned at almost the same moment

And the steamship captain in his buttoned blue jacket
and the retired cowboy actor in shaggy vest
and the contralto in her loose work clothes
and the hardware salesman in Levi overalls

They all turned at the sound of the surprise downbeat
with no words on their lips

And we made our way through the crowd that had
also turned in one unanimous motion
toward what it was we were all
turning toward

And the blundering ex-Prime Minister of an ex-colonial
power in his pajamas and the present Undersecretary of
External Affairs with name tag in brass on his blue serge lapel

And the head of the local Rose Society in her
expensive Paris rose-colored gown turned as if toward the
arrival of an important guest

And the author of sea adventures in turtleneck turned
and the young woman stenographer in mini skirt whose
future was uncertain

And none who turned at that precise
moment could be certain why they turned exactly
though the turning was instinctual and precise

the explosion of light not confined to the
horizon each sought with their eyes
but also surprisingly arising within them
believe it or not
so that as if on a pivot all turned at
once and as one toward it

The most hoped for ideal achieved in that moment
all differences erased no matter by
stiff celluloid collar or loose paint-spattered smock
high cheekboned or hooded steely-staring

each of us turned before our

actual deaths to the anvil strike of that which we
all have always hoped for in pleasurable harmony and

perfect recognition of hallowed radiance
on all our souls at once

toward which we will all
as one

most gratefully

turn

____________________________________
8/26/2006 (from In the Realm of Neither)



ALCHEMICAL WEDDING

When it was time for the wedding
antlered stags surrounded the enraptured circle

Fir trees shed fine silvery needles that splintered the
first morning light as they filtered to the ground

A phoenix even looked all around with its fiery eyes
as it rose in a column of escalatoring flame

A chorus of crickets began their polyphonies across
canyons and fjords until the whole sky was clicking

The couple drew aside webbed shadows from their faces
until their eyes met and fresh amber oozed from the trees

Blips from the black pond resounded with the life both
around it and inside it from deep down fishy darkness
and deep-throated frog romances

The wedding of moisture and duration longevity and breath
so many rays of focused light beamed triangularly down from
openings in clouds to make golden the
arena of this alchemical celebration

Moose and killdeer oriole and poplar arrived as if newly born
from non-existent distances

The wedding of perception to reality and heartbeat to lung-beat
from the eye’s pupil’s depths to the vibratory
trembling that shudders from the center of everything

A beaker bubbles over as a fine hair meanderingly falls through light

A geode opens like a bud as a feather fans out into
a complete singing bird that flies away

We were all present and saw them exchange their holy vows in a
mirror of perpendicular black and white rainbows

Saw them as their faces were bathed in blue quicksilver

Are with them now in their most intimate solitude

Wake with them in their eyes after the latch-creak of
first morning light

The language they speak is forever uncorrupted

The song they sing is amazement’s silent seashell
echoing back their own ears’ listening

______________________________
11/25/2004 (from Cooked Oranges)


FOR A COMMON GROUND

For a common ground
we must stand together
to see the earth beneath our feet

Then the glances between us
from continent to continent
will be nothing but sweet

And our souls’ ears awaken
from their deep global sleep
to hear the green heartbeat

that runs through its veins
and know the day has come
like fields of golden wheat

to find our common ground
and stand close together
to see the earth beneath our feet

and the heaven above our heads
and the heaven inside our hearts
that will make us complete

from every hidden corner
of humanity’s house
down every crooked street

infused with revelation
and the saintliest teachings
both inferred and concrete

all the great ones among us
in the past and now
with not a shred of deceit

whose advice to all of us
is to stand close together
to see the earth beneath our feet

and not to separate
into tribes and factions
lower status or elite

from fishing village or villa
from mountain top or desert
wherever humans meet

to exchange precious words
and flashes of eye
in the courtesy to greet

each and every individual
who’s been born in this life
with a front row seat

to find our common ground
by standing close together
to see the earth beneath our feet

see past clouds of division
to the clear light of unity
embracing on God’s love seat

which is not theoretical
but totally existential
and has nothing incomplete

when it comes to ancient wisdom
drawn from love’s deep caves
under modern concrete

which pulses through us all
and reaches our heads
from the bottoms of our feet

through love’s rivering capillaries
and love’s bodily organs
arranged so perfectly neat

in the worlds of our physical
as well as metaphysical beings
both overt and discreet

drawing us together
to find our common ground
and see the earth beneath our feet

transformed from complexity
to divine simplicity
in which everything is sweet

nothing remiss nor left out
nothing able to defeat us
though we need to repeat

that to find common ground
we must all stand together
to see the earth beneath our feet

and the light in each heart
that is one single heart
like a freshly washed sheet

dried in a sunlight
not completely of this world
that warms the earth beneath our feet

which is our common ground
where we stand together
to become complete

________________________
5/2/2009