Vanquished

Falling to my knees.

Crushed to my very essence.

Grind me to dust.
Scatter my elements.

Empty me of me.

Divide me into past and future

In the netherworld of now,

Until nothing remains.

I will grasp
Only at the void.

Buffeted by gales of opposition,

I am now a bare branch

On a wild ocean,

Stripped of bark,

White as bone.

I drift and search for safe harbor

In the tempest, but know I must

Find it in the placidity of myself.

Nothing external, nothing,

Can help me now.

I search crests of

Waves and horizons

For divinity and pray

Between the heaves

Of storm.

In my mind, I see
The star inside the cut apple,

The shimmering stone
In the shattered geode,

The shaft of sunlight in the breach.

One drives hard into life and splits open.

One shifts and morphs

Into shapes not yet known. Disaster? Perhaps.

Yet the elemental murk from which

You sprang remains.

The Godhead speaks:

Compassion and Truth

Will guide you, push you
Down the coast,

Provide comfort in this cold, blue light.

Grind me down.

Scatter me

To the elements.

In my dissolution

Will come my salvation.

(October 2010)

Quest for the Quotidian

You will go back to basics —

Stacking wood,

Making the bed,

Breathing sea air …

Back to doing laundry

And flossing your teeth,

Raking the yard,

Kneeling to pray.

You will return

To the day to day

— the ironing

Of shirts and the crunch

Of leaves underfoot in

The woods. God never left,

And works within.
Still, the clock keeps ticking.

Matutinal Hymn

A vibratory sheen cloaks all

Upon the new green.

All things — flowers, birds,

Blades of grass, the sky itself —

Carry the light’s sharpness

In the quick clarity of newness.

The freshness of morning

has been fresh a long time.

Even the granite stonewall
Seems to be humming.

Be the Seed

Your time in winter sleep,

Enough of that; you're done.

Today, you'll crack in darkness.
Then blossom in the sun.

First Light, Barbados

Mornin’,

Star that lights all lives,

Even in the darkest places,

And why do I happen to land here

On Harrismith Beach, St. Philip, Barbados,

Alone, swaddled in beauty inexplicable,

At this early hour?
I weep. I smile. I awake.

Too much, really, all this.

Be still here, I counsel myself.
Remember:

See the star rising over the

Unbelievable blue-green ocean,

The sugar sand beneath your feet.

The coral walls, the swaying palms,
The caresses of the tradewinds.

You, uncloaked now,
Standing in those

Thrashing waves. 
Still smiling through tears,

A crazy tourist.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Where are the kings and the angels?

The paupers and the downtrodden?

Why this heaven on Earth for you?

And then the sun rises and 
You recognize this truth 
At the core of all things:

The world is fundamentally good.

Mornin’.

MIA to BGI

Second leg —

And the orangey-white

Twinkling grid

Of Miami blazes impossibly

Beneath the left wing.

We turn on a tilt,

Grinding and buckling,

And thanks to gravity

And that banquet of air,

Make a heading,

Dagger-eyed and tail blinking,

Toward the equator,

Where the planet

Bulges closer to the sun.

The black cuts into view

At the land’s edge,

The sea there below,

And we rattle and rocket —

Just me and God,

And the rivets along the wings.

It’s all a dream state —

The Diet Coke trembling

In its plastic cup on stage left

Of my seatback tray.

The loafers on my feet

That trudged through snow and ice

This morning

Hours from now,

If those rivets hold,

Will traipse the good 

Ocher dust of the West Indies.

I know nothing.
I need to go where
I am directed.

How can I retain

The miraculous?

With this poem.

Sea Song

Swell and stone,
      Movement among movement —
Eddy, spray, tumble —
     Wearing rock,
Light refracting light,
Gradation of sound
      And slide of sky
In the mirroring sheen,
       Glottal rumble of popples,
       Rounded by the grind.
Shimmer, sheen, and foam ...
Speak to me
In the ineffable tongue
         Of your lashings
           And smooth surfaces.
Make me whole again.
          Put me in my proper place:

            On solid ground.