Poem for a friend

Night falls around you
veiled and barely breathing. It
is frail, fledgling, frigid
folding darkly these black sheets
Winter air to grasp your shoulders,
it sighs like restless wind
soughing sadly, softly-scattered, crying
cold and alone
But hope glows in the
lantern of your soul
Darling, you wear Light and
still Mercy grows
Awake as a song in this
furnace of dark, your heart
is an ocean, your eyes glance the stars
You are golden and true, child
golden and true; you have
sun in your bones dancing
joyous and full
And against the cruel lair of
bitter despair, look within to
your ribs, hear the Lion’s brave roar
Fiercely daring, you ride upon
waves gleaming sparks; no matter the
depths, find your Grace bold and stark.
Have hope, friend.
Have hope.

sprawl

Beauty, grab my soul as an
anchor, cutting jagged grooves
deep in the murky soil below oceans
Our friendships as passing ships—sails
east, west—we
miss each other in the
sea swathes fumbling
Crooked planks that shut a
hungered blood behind old wood
My thoughts were bleeding
thorns onto the deck
How can I be this close to you yet
so very far?
Breathing splinters, burying stars
Benevolent God, teach me a
kind caress to bind the
blindness broken-singing
Stitch these frames as brothers bearing;
sisters sewing songs to
soothe the sorrowed scarring
Deserted vessels water-clinging,
empty-howling fractures sprawling
Alone, watching grieving whales fix their dying
Wretched face that burns with sadness sighing— יהוה
Teach me how to be.

vanishing

My lord, when I had
lost mine eyes, my
heart had rotted of
vanished root
As if I lived
body void of spirit
darkness fuming,
stammering
As if I breathed with
no bones

My unease a
stronger strength than
faith of fathers humble
Can you feel this
broken tremble?

But Light fractured, fighting
calls with quiet grace
"Where there is darkness,
Let there be light"

La prière de Thomas

Three-person'd God,
if crooked my mind be,
bind me with light,
tenacious and burning
and if great are Thee
and if grace is Thee
then forgive my wandering.

If reigning eternally,
ethereal Divine, grant me
peace no reason can grasp
For if truth would be true,
shall it matter with You?

Is Your essence by nature,
by logic, forever entwined
in truth, with truth, for truth,
that if not true, Your spirit
shall vanish? Or love--
what of love? For if I have found a
home in You, if I have found
forgiveness, shall redemption find
solace in ignorant bliss?

Lord immortal, be kind, to
my heart be kind, for
I doubt.

जीना

Hope burns, breathing
etched in souls, carving
thick into bamboo hearts
always with me, never
sleeping, either shrinking
or GROWING, flickering like
lights on the sun

photo

You caught me in
the midst of my doubt—

You heard me.

blur

I dreamt once of forgetting, a
far off me
But now I am fading, skin
loose in the framework
distant from the heart of my
youth. I am
grown but I am gone

we

I wear your love like a
badge on my heart
I wear your hurt like a
bruise on my soul
I wear your light like a
veil and your dark like a
galaxy deep in my chest

We are filled with cracks
We are dirt, we are seeds
We are oceans deep
You are etched in my veins
A breath, a wound, a
mystery

You are gold, I
am silver and we
shine nebulous and
free.

I am you
you are me.

photo

choke.

Hatred, a
bruise on my heart
growing—
Pulsing with soil
thick and putrid
from my chest
spreading.
It bruised my
eyes, so that swollen
unseeing, my
vision had blurred
through the blood swelling.

photo