coffee, Easter morning

I am negotiated
into my own skin
"don't twitch"
I tell myself
"you have so much
to be present for"

in this time
in this place
I watch the movements
cogs within cogs
inside a vast machinery
that is a Universe
that is a eulogy
for this morning's coffee

through the skylight
branches of winter tree
reaching for buttons
on spring's blouse

"I have faith in you"
"stay in your own skin"
"something grand
is afoot"

more, always more

freedom in coarse confessions
the 8 broken limbs
of yoga
the genius
of disbelief
more than meets
the eye
more than we can
bear
more, always more
we run into cloud barriers
and stop, dumb
not understanding
what we are
to do with this
information
cost of a funeral
on a Friday late nite
when the stores are all
shuttered
and the living
is easy
and songs cost less
than the vinyl
from which they rise
a liberated vapor
some measures of pressure
singing their
confidences
disclosing
everything

platytudes

no time like the present
and the present is a gift
don't you know
and the altitude of ego
diminishes as days
collect as counterparts
into ever-expanding
into on and up
into off again and the why of it all
into something less than we have
but satisfied nonetheless

happy enough to burst
through the ceiling, through the clouds
to the stars, to the constellation rotation
to the crazypeople who hide
among the asteroid belts

and who would guess their existence
when so confined by science
in silence only, we know
what a moment
is truly worth

the invention of time

the invention of time
right about now
this tableau is broadcast
on the screen
of flow
time, invented anew
each moment
by whom
for what purpose
dive deep
beneath the waves
of radiating light
find the maternal glow
that is the source
through layers
of pestilence
feed from the breast
you holy, only child
newborn ancient
along with
the rest of us

on reading Hazrat Inayat Khan

greater unto greater
one world immense
into another such world
the path becomes the Universe
the Universe becomes a marmoset
baby, warm and purring
folded into mother's belly
our stories are for telling
one voice, one silence, one fur

green life

love as balm
attention, a panacea
mindfulness is medicine
in the window
in the early evening night
first day of spring
a heart thing
leaves glow street flow
we grow, merging into mind
waves of knowing
lap at home
of ceramic and soil

struggling

struggling
against nothing
against no one
against myself
against the great Birth
the moment of Introduction
the bow-inducing audience
applause like blood
rushing
a river of blood
through one ear
and out the other

take your bow
you are absent
empty hands
clapping, no sound
finally accorded
your Dispensation