MIRRORS OF CONCIOUSNESS

                              file # 2 1996

 

 

                             

                              A...

                              AFTER HOPES FALL

                              AFTER READING I CORINTHIANS 3:18

                              ALL CREATURES LOVE GOD IN CREATURES

                              AS A RICHNESS GATHERS

                              A SIMPLE CONCEPT OF ENLIGHTENMENT

                              AS IS THY NAME, O GOD

                              AT THE LAST JUDGMENT

 

                              B...

                              BELOVED BOTTOM

                              BURNING LUMINOUS HOLES/

                                WHEN LOVE BURNS HOLES

                                  IN THE SOUL

 

                              C...

                              COMMENTS ON SAINT MARK'S JESUS

                              CONFIDENCE IS:

 

                              D...

                              DIVULGENCES

 

                              F...

                              FIGHTING CONSTRICTIONS

                              FINAL BAPTISM

                              FOR NELLY SACHS AND HER WORK OF PEACE

 

                              G...

                              GOD IS A HOLY INFLUENCE

                              GOD IS NAKED

 

                              H...

                              HOW FULLNESS FLOWS INTO EMPTINESS

                              HOW STRANGE THAT THE GREATEST BEAUTY

                                      SHOULD WOUND US SO...

 

                              I...

                              IN MY PRIMAL WOUND WORDS FLOW

                              IN THE HAPPENING NOW

                              IN THE INFINITE PLENTITUDE

                              INUNDATION

                              I PRESSED MY HAND PRINT IN SOFT MUD

                              IT SEEMS LIFE-EVIDENT

 

                              L...

                              LIFE FEARFUL AND MISSING THE POINT

                              LIFEING A NEW WEEK

 

                              M...

                              MAY THE BEST GOD WIN

 

                              O...

                              ON A DAY LIKE THIS

                              ON I JOHN 4:19

                              ONLY THE REAPED GROWS

                              OUT OF THE ACHE

 

                              P...

                              POETRY'S TONGUE

                              PRAYER ANSWERS

                              PURPOSES AND ACUMINATION

 

                              R...

                              RELIGION

                              RELIGION'S FAILURE

 

                              S...

                              SOME STRANGE CIRCLES WE GO IN HEALING

                              SOUL-SOIL AND WORMS

 

                              T...

                              THERE ARE ELECTRIC ARCS

                              THERE IS A NEW CRUSADE

                                  THAT WILL LINK US TO EVERY BEAUTIFUL SOUL

                                  OF THE AGES

                              THE SILVER SHIVER OF FREEDOM

                              TO A SACRED CHOIR

                                  IN HONOR OF THEIR BECOMING THE BEAUTY

                                  THAT COURSED THROUGH RACHMANINOFF

                              TOPICS AND COMMENTS

                              TRUE ART

 

                              U...

                              UNCLINGING AND LIGHTER THAN AIR/HE MOVES

                                   IN INCARNATION

 

                              W...

                              WE SHOULD CARRY THE SKY WITH US

                              WHAT IS DUE AND TRUE

                              WHO KNOWS THE POWER OF POETRY?

                              WORD FORMS AND SPIRIT

                              WRITING ON THE BOOK OF LIFE

 

                              LAST POEM IN FILE: THERE ARE ELECTRIC ARCS

                             

 

 

                              THE POEMS:

 

 

 

 

                         ALL CREATURES LOVE GOD IN CREATURES

 

                         We love the beauty

                         of all creatures,

                         whether beauty of body or soul.

                         It is beauty

                         and its inwrought pleasure

                         that we love and seek

                         --if we are alive!

                         One soul loves the paintings

                         of Michaelangelo and Bottacelli;

                         another loves the feel of leather

                         under his rump, and the wild look

                         in a good horse's eye.

                         Another soul sits for hours

                         entranced by flashes of beauty

                         seen in a soap opera:

                         They each feel mingled stirrings

                         of primal, spiritual passions

                         that are their rightful domain.

                         All creatures love God

                         reflected in creatures.

                         To love God nakedly

                         is to place your lips

                         over the small orifice

                         from which

                         white waters

                         of northern glaciers

                         flow out

                         of ancient stone.

 

 

 

 

                              GOD IS A HOLY INFLUENCE

 

                              God is known

                              by His influence:

                              the "in-flowing" of his transparencies,

                              the liquid spaciousness of the holy

                              affecting the character.

                              God is seen in God's effects:

                              the influence of invisibility

                              is visible.

                              It is we who are designated to be

                              God's palpable expressions!

 

 

 

 

                              HOW STRANGE

                              THAT THE GREATEST BEAUTY

                              SHOULD WOUND US SO...

 

                              How strange

                              that the greatest beauty

                              should wound us so...

                              We fall into the rose

                              and thorns prick us,

                              we lie amongst fragrances

                              and bleed.

                              There are times

                              when the heart longs

                              to stop beating,

                              when the mind aches

                              to release every image

                              and rest in the spaceless spaces

                              of the hidden, holy sea.

                              But heaven is full

                              of beloved faces,

                              and every soul there

                              wants to run

                              and kiss us

                              back

                              into our

                              passionate love

                              of God's rose,

                              its

                              holy fragrance

                              and

                              thorns.

 

 

 

 

 

 

                         IT SEEMS LIFE-EVIDENT

                        

                         It seems life-evident

                         that where we are most vulnerable

                         there we are meant to be

                         most ecstatic:

                         Love alone laying her

                         transparent hand

                         over the quivering green bud of us,

                         kissing our core with wind.

                         And so love-warmed life thrusts upward,

                         naked, tender, open,

                         in the midst of its hard,

                         gray whorl of sharp, dead sticks

                         and leaves.

 

 

 

 

                         PRAYER ANSWERS

 

                         From our Lord's freedom

                         and to His freedom,

                         all good things flow.

                         To let go!

                         is to flow into His freedom.

                         as our freedom;

                         His goodness...

                         as our only actual good.

                         Goodness will flow

                         through us and unto us

                         in specific things

                         picked by God

                         to uniquely be

                         part of us

                         in Him.

                         So, let's let go!

                         and fall and flow 

                         into freedom!

                        

 

 

 

 

                         AS IS THY NAME, O GOD

 

                         The young brightness of a Man

                         who stands in a shadow of light

                         amidst a Sun we cannot see,

                         star-centered

                         in the midst of the world,

                         calls for our soul-seed hearts

                         to crack open

                         to the light of Him.

                         He moves through coral-colored

                         conical shells

                         as beauty moves.

                         He moves through the swirl of foam

        &n