Making Sacred

 

certainly candles and sage and incense and amulets and artwork can help to bring a sense of sacredness to a place or space. although i think what is more sacred is the human heart. the sincerity of presence, focus and intention one can bring into a space or place is the most important aspect of making that place or space sacred.

MAY POEM

i can see God's hand
reaching
through just about anything:
blue sky and slow clouds
padded room and strait jacket
the feeling of ecstasy
at getting to experience
another day, another 24 hours
of breath, the miracle
of life blown through
this clay pot, two hands 
brought to the chest
for a bow...to what do i bow?
all of it! all of it
beginning with breath
and self and selves and
the threads that pull
life together and
the dance of children
and the understanding
that some day, one day
i will let go of this
breath, and
the focused world will
continue on

ON THE WAR WITH IRAN

40 plus days of war
and no end on the horizon
the rich men in power
parade as virtuous, one look
at the man put in charge
of the so-called peace talks, one listen
to him and it becomes a surprise
the entire planet has not yet been blown
to pieces, the men from this side of the world

in charge of so-called peace talks 

are the most sycophantic,
delirious and psychopathic men i may
have ever heard utter a sentence, the amount
of unyielding patriotism they possess
is a threat to human beings everywhere

CARE

 
for a time, imagined 'acceptance' by society
was the desire
now, some 20 or 25 years later
i realize the fallacy
i see that there is no acceptance by society
there are only mass graves
where the television is the lid to the coffin
there is only mass hysteria
where fanaticism replaces humane connection

i have made a secluded home and sanctuary
in a time of alienation and greed
i have some how survived

by the kindness of strangers
and mostly staying to my own means and ends
quietly following the breath
with pointed attention
or, reading Fanon, devorah major, June Jordan
reading The Dhammapada
and applying it too
my foremost foe has been within the mind itself
the hunger, the desire, the laziness
how to tame these aspects of self?
i suppose we contend
and on any given day, the only difference
between the one who prevails
and the one who succumbs
is consistency
and persistence

i think about how to heal peoples
i think about how to unite the human being
under the banner of humanity, belonging and care and generosity
but i know nothing of how this could be made manifest
all i know is to acknowledge the human
try to have something good to show
try to share something consciously
kindness and generosity are not lost
but we have to stoke their flames every day
we have to practice
there is a whole lot that is coming to an end
there is a whole lot of loss
i don't know what to make of it all
i write my poems, i sing, i dance
bloom in music
and cultivate silence
anything else and it is far beyond me
i dream of prevailing over systems of white supremacy
as a human family, you know?
i dream of leaving money behind
burn it, destroy it, let it go
most of all tho,

you've got to teach yourself
to look into the eyes of another human being
and recognize something worth acknowledging
something of yourself, something marvelous
something you cannot own
something you share with many many many others on this crazy journey of living and dying 

Journal entry - Motion

 

Motion

alive with what?
what pushes the candle flame
what pulls
what stills
in between the motion towards the door handle
and when the handle is turned,
what there?
the reflection, i can see myself
in the words of another
—how letters bounce in the air
before moving to the heart
without leaving a page
or, shall i be contented in seclusion?
shall i not chart strange landscapes
across my bearded smile
or, should i find the prices
at the grocer's to be endearing?
the terror of citizenship?
the martyring of brothers and sisters?
human being to human being
i see candle to candle
and a lot more too 

 

 

 

Poem to Iranians

 

i heard it said of Rabia
that the only thing she owned
was a small brick that she used
as a pillow

i imagine God smiles upon such a soul

—there are spaces
within the human heart, spaces
that can open and spaces that
can deepen

how many tragedies, how many disasters
how many loves, how many triumphs,
and how much light? 

may the human heart, for the remainder 
of this 21st century become a beacon,
a lighthouse, a star with its various points and its
luminous stature standing undefeated in the sky

and what if this work of being human, 
what if this work of witnessing the heart's openings
is the work of a distant star amidst day light—

whether or not the Romans and the Persians 
ever stopped warring, there is an opening
in my heart for you, there is an opening
in my heart for your heart, for your
way of being, for your way of being human
 

Belongings

The three belongings of the human being:

to Earth, to one another, and to the Divine.