Author Archives: threadfollower

Just a Glance

Hades never promised me a Eurydice.
Looking backwards, whether succumbing
to doubt, fear, an overwhelming desire,
or simply caught between love and reason,
never cost me the one whose hand I held.

And who hasn't turned around a time or two,
disregarding the angel's explicit command,
to look upon all that we were leaving
for a better land where everyone always
strains their looking forward into the future.

Orpheus lost, arriving from the underworld
with no one holding his hand to keep
him warm at night.  The wife of Lot, nameless, 
lost, a pillar now, a tower warning against
attachment and divine disobedience.  And me?
What dire consequences, when I cling
to a way of life, do I suffer for just a glance?

circles

i sit in the same chair
day after day after day
looking out the same window
watching shadows
rise, stretch, disappear, stretch again, and fade
forgetting what happened yesterday
at the edge of memory

i remember the times
of consistently pushing against
the small circles of special
formed by those caught within
the burdens of their unbridled desires

the pushing in the mad hope 
of creating an opening
for the welcome of all
wore me out
so now i sit and watch
trying not to give offense

it is the delight of the divine
to give the rain and the sun
to come down upon everything
admirably arranged
circles everywhere and nowhere
leaving no shadows

Communication

Don't quote to me words of scripture
From the book I already know
Tell me instead about the after
Which was written long ago

Share with me the story
Of your fall through times gone by
Unfold your map of history
which leads us to the why

I don't pretend to know it all
I've raised my hand enough
In answer to the question's call
Do you like it rough?

Someone always sings
The sad notes of love's last refrain
To what altars do we bring 
Our tears that fall like rain?

Yes, count your lonely steps
That lead from here to there
Dare to say, Except,
When others talk unaware

Let Us

Let us be a little merciful this morning
Let us give up the tried and true
Let us watch the sun rise together
Let us memorize how the sky turns blue

Let us be a little merciful this morning
Let us listen as the soft breeze blows
Let us release the night's last firefly
Let us remember, God only knows

Let us remember, God only knows
Let us be a little merciful this morning

Traveling Water

A few weeks ago
while visiting a daughter in Montana,
I stood at the headwaters of the Missouri River
tucked away in a wide mountain valley.

We had hiked for an hour or so
through scrubland with the smell of sage in the air
to view the gathering of rivers
where Lewis & Clarke had camped
some two hundred years earlier.

A few weeks later 
I find myself downstream in Memphis,
wondering if the brown waters 
that I view from my hotel window
are the same that I saw 
flowing clear over river rocks out west.

I think about being taken up into the sky,
coming back down as rain on the plains,
again being caught up in the great river basin.

Or maybe I flow and wind my way
along thousand mile stretches of river banks,
sightseeing, careless with no mind of my own,
moving with all that is around me 
under the great big sky.

Possibility

Stand underneath a cottonwood tree in mid-summer,
or under a sycamore, to get the same view of the light,
as the breeze-blown leaves move and flutter
allowing some sun to come directly upon your face,
already having passed through the blue sky overhead.

Knowledge of self and of all-that-is comes to you 
in that same way: sometimes clear and bright,
at other times briefly hidden, at all times present,
surrounding you with possibility for the remainder of the day.

Befriend the Moon

Do not seek to earn the approval ratings
of the pundits and judges of people.
Be like the moon, circling the earth
because it must.  Shame always hides
behind the need for perfectionism,
to impress and control others.  Look
how the tides grow as the moon 
passes gently across the sky.
On some nights there is only darkness.
The moon reflects what light
is given to it by the sun.
Clouds may hide the full nature
of your divine character.
The moon always shows its favorite side.
Befriend the moon.