To Beat The Birds

To Beat The Birds

I wore a face that was not my face

The muscles tensed and gripped

In ways they were not designed for

Long hours of frowning in front of a computer

Too many times smiling when nothing was funny

Or the worst, curling the lips at the corners

To sign approval of an act I found despicable

These muscles were meant to express

Love

Hunger

Rage

Kindness

Hilarity

Grief
Wonder

The molds my face understands

And for far too long this face has slipped

Between the deep grooves of Being

And skated along the shallows of conformity

No more

For I no longer recognize the rudimentary lines

And weak boundaries I have been asked to force my face into

It takes too much energy to be nothing, to be subservient, to follow the program

For I am too strong to hold myself down

I give my face permission to act as it will, say what it wants

Take the forms it finds comfortable

And laugh to beat the birds

The Self Drops Free

The Self Drops Free

You relieved me of thoughts of the Self

I held the concept out trembling in my hands

Like a sickly bird that could not fly

For I did not want to let it go

It was everything

This quest for the True Self

Which had become deeply rooted in my mind

Bounding who I am within the confines of mere idea

And ideas don’t exist

They haunt the mind

Taunt it in a whirlwind of whispers

In Your presence

Overwhelmed in the light of wholeness

My hands shook with fear

And I persisted in this fear

As all humans must for change to happen

And my ideas of the Self dropped free

Like brown leaves from a great tree

That serve it no more

Remember

 

Remember

Remember Son. Remember Daughter

The ground upon which you stand

Is not just ground

It is Earth

Connected to Earth

Until it meets the Sea

And then it ends

But only for your feet

The Earth continues

Downward

Through the fathoms

Under the deepest depths

To support the waters

And hold them up

Cradled in the loving palm of Earth

All that water

Remember Son. Remember Daughter

This is the place from which you came

From which all life began

The Earth is unbroken

The continuity of seasons

Can be traced to the time

Before seasons

And this Time too has a Mother and a Father

Just like you Son. Just like you Daughter

You are unbroken

You are whole

And you came from the Sea

 

Nature

Nature

Everything is vibration...Everything is song

Kushi Uni

Kushi Uni

I drink a cup of balance
A cup of wholeness
And like oil and water
The inner muck gets pushed out
I hang the dirty laundry
In my private garden
And watch the soiled garments
Swing in the breeze
I water them with clear, warm tears
Until they’re drenched
Dripping down to slake the thirst of the grass

I can see what keeps me from You
I note the shapes, the cuts of fabric, the stitching
The worst are the ones with words woven into them
Like barbed fences and high guard towers
The tattered ones too, so old
Since I’ve had them since childhood
And somehow they’ve grown with me
Keeping pace with my growing body
Always maintaining a snug fit
And never losing stiffness or the hundreds of needles
Pointed inward and outward

Relieved of this branding
I see that I have chosen all of my garments
Not that I made them
But that I accepted them
And dress myself in the mirror with these same clothes every day

I’m naked and I close my eyes and turn my head to the sky
I can see patterns of veins illumined by the sun’s warmth
And I drape myself in their latticework
Regal and pulsing with the dignity of my being
I am a node, clean and open to the great vibrations of Your heart
Your rhythm, Green Mother, becomes my rhythm
And we dance in harmony as my voice erupts in song
The notes of which spring feathers and I rise into the brilliant blue
Out of my private garden
And see all boundaries are artificial
And that there is only You

Fire Tender

 

Fire Tender

I caught a glimpse of fire and reached out and took an ember and held it close to my heart. I want to be a fire tender, to help the flame pass through the ages, to be a small hand this fire passed through but for an instant.