An ornate lamp hangs
In a gentle place
There to illuminate
When darkness falls
A beautiful ornament
In the clear light of day
Would create a spectacle
In the dim hues of night
And now I wish
I had seen this room
Bathed in the prismatic glow
Which gives shape to the dark
I remind myself
There is always a bridge
To some place better
Than I am now
Sometimes all it takes
To cross the bridge
Is to open my eyes and recognize
I already have
I remind myself
There is always a light
To help me see
Who I want to be
Sometimes all it takes
To see who I will become
Is to open my heart and realize
I already am
The Way is not a practice of movement
The Way becomes easier
When I discover the value
In being still
towers and citadels
ramparts and parapets
fortress on the hillside
set afire in the morning sun
battles fought
war rages on
death visits here
still more to come
one strong heart
with will of stone
resolve of iron
but moments late
her final breath
his broken cry
their eyes now glazed
with death and grief
reign of tears
a rain of years
for one still form
her light now passing
towers and citadels
ramparts and parapets
fortress on the hillside
with darkness do the losses come
time withers
all good hope
but for love’s
illuminance
five hundred years
lives pass along
’til one strong heart
revived by dreams
a love once lost
was born anew
he holds the hand
of one once dead
knows the heart
which then fell still
now beats again
in true love’s breast
time’s never still
nor linear
where once was love
love’s never lost
towers and citadels
ramparts and parapets
fortress on the hillside
rememb’ring love can’t be undone
In the darkness
An inner light
Dim but ageless
Beyond is daylight
Through a window
Barred
Trapped
Inside
I quell the panic
Mindful
Of the small dim light
Until it grows
Illuminates the darkness
And the latch
To the bars containing me
I am free
Remembering the power
Of even a small dim light
A light which burned
For ten short years
Burned thrice as bright
And yet…
unseen
Like beacons in
The darkened sky
Which lived and died
Aeons ago
But whose light
Has reached us
…Only now
Though in that beam
Cast by hands and heart
Long gone
My spirits rise
I find again
…Delight
In starry starry night
Once the light entered the bowl
Something magical happened
Something I’ll probably
Never fully understand
The light coalesced
Hardened
Formed swirling tendrils
Of incandescence
Well
I understood one thing
Light was alive
No
Not alive
Conscious
And what I was witnessing
Was the comingling
Of unmanifested being
One each to a tendril
Swimming as if a school of fish
In a golden bowl
Struck just the right way
By the sun
And then it was gone
Light
Was merely light
Again
But some trick of the cosmic tail
Had let me in on the secret
Because in an instant
I’d known
Light
Is love
And love
Is light
When we are unmanifested
In this purest spirit form
We know this as surely as
The necessity of a breath
We know it in a way
A brain cannot grok
But our manifest purpose
The meaning of our existence
Is to remember
And for a moment
Looking into a sunlit bowl
I remembered
A glimpse of the unknowable
Out of the corner of my eye
A memory I struggle to keep
Every day
Such soothes the grief
Of one life’s sad lament
Whose diminished light
No longer casts
Onto the stilling sea
Sufficient light
To bounce a single ray
Confused and lost
Mind gone astray
Now take another breath
Do I
Remember bounteous light
Which shimmered off
A rampant sea
And know that souls
Are infinite
That one life lived
No matter grand or small
Is but a drop
Where raindrops fall
So many more still yet to come
And this one
Though diminished now
Once was bright as raging sun
And in your eyes
I see you know
Feel the shadow
Across your soul
Confused you are
By your confusion
Where once you knew
Some clarity
As time and mind
Slip from you
So too do you
Slip from me
We navigated
The long night
To morning’s welcome
This new shore
Beckoning
An oppressive weight
Waiting to fall
My mood becomes dark as the sky
Until I realize the low grey cover
Provides an atmospheric parasol
A gift to soften harsh desert sun
Diminish the heat of afternoon
An invitation to step out of the car
I breathe deeply in sage-scented air
While my mood becomes effervescent
As sage drifting in the desert breeze
