Prayer

oh love,
i think of our words,
today's and yesterday's,
some sweet, some bitter,
and watch them all
rise as invocations
into the sun of our love.

i think of your lovely brown back,
bent to the sun as you garden
and feel my desire burn pure and clean
in the sun of our love.

i think of the petty and the fearful things in me,
and watch them burn to ashes
in the sun of our love.

oh love,
let us throw open the doors of our hearts,
let the light of this love
suffuse us, fill us, flood us.
let us live in this marvelous gift,
in the sun of our love.

---

Someone to Love

My son's dog comes over to me,

puts her paws up on my chest, and

looks deep into my eyes.

She affects love for me, and maybe it's real,

but how can a man know what's in a dog's heart,

when he doesn't even know his own.

I do know that she wants me to scratch her chest,

which pleases her a great deal.

I am offended in some mild way,

if this is all she wants from me,

and then i wonder:

is this how god feels about me

coming to him day after day

crying for a woman,

someone to love, and 

someone to love me,

and why he says (sometimes)

No.

Again and Awake

I've been through the fire again and again,
I am ashes,
yet the pain continues.
I cry and cry again,
it changes nothing.
I hold tight, I fear,
and so cannot awake.
Yet holding tight, fearing,

I am awake.
I cry again,
in overwhelming longing and grief,
and wonder if death brings relief.
Yet i believe the mystic who said:
if you don't break your chains now
will ghosts do it in the afterlife?
And so i step into the fire
yet again, hoping to awake.
Hoping? Oh man, foolish man,
cease your hoping and awake.
Awake!
 

Love Poem

Good morning dear one,

just so you know:

i believe in us.

with trust and love

inward, outward

towards our secret hearts

and the manifold world,

towards the alpha and omega,

and the meeting of friends

at the hearth of the one.

i believe in us,

in shovels and rakes

dirt and sweat,

seeds and sun,

and the mingling waters of us,

fed from the eternal spring.

i believe in us,

just so you know:

and this morning,

i send you my arms to wrap around you

when you need a hug; 

i send my eyes, shining

to show you my love and yours,

i send you my lips, soft, and

i send tiny seed kisses for your mouth,

your eyes,

your cheeks,

your neck,

your brown shoulders,

your breasts.

Plant them as you desire.

feel them grow into our love,

rich and radiant

under the sun that is you.

i believe in us,

just so you know.

I do.