1
Powerful weakness, how she withholds-
herself in rocks-
shallow pools trapped, defending
the forces she can't release-
or perhaps it is I,
lacking courage, strength, love enough
to honor these waves in deeper law
as cliffs and drops overhang
a bliss there to share...
How she backs away, defying castles,
though they taste azure and softest blue.
Must this accursed soul
stumble cracks and danger,
other loves and longings,
awkward harbours it cannot know?
Foreign armies on her waters-
must we befriend them?
Ignorant slaves insulting state,
as I hold fort as storms pass on,
and bitterly quiet now,
witnessed by seal of man,
winners take all,
rallying will, social force and fame,
taming tides most profane...
this flesh, warship for love,
cuts unrisen waves to conquer
all she believes she is-
and anchored in flesh
I see loyal flag flutter
-though mutiny screams surrender -
so sweet, yet held over standing:
God, I did it, and cherished a corpse-
she left, and was not there.
Good it all cracked open-
this vanity, this sanctioned shame-
on knees now, all broken
created and destoyed,
recalling the higher worship
of words unspoken:
that she may live, be free
splashing herself through any sea
may she but live and love,
hardship and higher kinship
masted toward Freedom
2
Oh grimmest heart,
enslaved to good intent
and blinded monster social law
that looks human but betrays
more artfully than disease-
I too board fellowship and sail -
reflection raped, laid waste
under standing on earth immune
to this despair,
composed to wisdom's shore
with unillusioned friends
on mountains far from sea
where man and God commune,
and peace abiding shame-
upper space that wastens yearning
and heat, it softens
this night of non-becoming -
a butterlamp, fireflies, the void
and light so empty
as stirrings before word's formation
funnel through tree alive
and memory in the grain
reclaims itself to let
duplicates of finer form
disolve, revolve, evolve
3
And on to fiercer war-
suffering sought and held by throat
murdered slowly with smiles
more sweet than fallen fruit of Eden
and evil, how we tried to purge it
and fighting war, we became
by measure the blood we drank,
the rattle of prisoner trains
and someone didn't do anything
to bar space between
boot and newborn child,
blue eyes, atlantis template
filled with collective hate
and all liberty's magic raped
in nigredo eluding guilt
as water blends with fire
and torrents of muddy rage
make soul work crueler
than suffering itself.
4
Born again, vengeance unraped
and guilt still flat in faces
above understanding
the sacred texts, the fire, the death,
and manuscript in shreds again
as sermons of shamballa,
forewarn without consumming
denial or death or
piles of unwashed lies,
white flag waves hello, bye, surrender
And here you are, reopened,
Freedom kissed you in gardens
I forgot to trespass
yet here we meet now-
filling ourselves - unending deferral
and god-like consummation.
Teacher now, and closer
to Lear stumbling blinded
at the edge of conception
squatting human breath,
oh beloved freedom, see
wisdom's child, unborn,
how heaven and earth enfold her,
as resident and uniformed in state
of options more enlightened,
we find ourselves unaddressed
as learning nothing, we trust
in love itself to widen
echelons of hope ingathering
this new creation.
