Posts made in January, 2008

This Thirst

There is an aching deep within my heart

why dogs pace back and forth before a door
as their master turns for home.

Ah, this restlessness, this thirst, this ache,
this silent undertow inside
that takes me back to the hidden spring
where lions come to drink,
and snakes,
why birds sing when they are all alone
and the long ride home on an empty train
often feels like an arrival.

The Falcon and the Falconer

I am the falcon,
you are the falconer.
Always I am coming back to you,
my soaring skyward just a strategy
to gather speed for my ultimate return.
How you have trained me is a mystery —
the way you’ve tamed my restless heart.
It is not with fear. I do not fear you.
It is not with food.

There is prey enough for me everywhere I fly.
It is more the way you offer me your arm,
a place to land, a second skin,
scented with the wild musk of one who waits for me,
what I would be if I would be a man.

It is a wonderful game the two of us play —
this coming and going,
this circular ballet.
Each time you loose the loops around my legs
and signal me to fly, I remember
what it is to rise for the first time.

It is here I find my rest, my home.
Untethered, still I do not move,
needing only to be close to you, my Falconer.
It is this that beats my wings, releases me to sky,
rides the unseen currents of the air
and though I notice other things:
the tops of trees, a cloud, a nimble rabbit on the ground,
all I see is you, holding out your arm to me,
even as a thousand other falcons overhead,
each within your view,
circle closer, spiral down, descend,
yet still I know that I am next
and this
is the perfect moment
of my return.

The Source

NOT MEANT TO BE
but is.
NOT WHEN IT SHOULD BE
but is happening now.
IS THE MOST DRAMATIC
and can go by almost completely unnoticed.
CHANGES WITH EVERY MOTION
but never do i see the waves.
CALLS ME WHEN I AM OBLIVIOUS
and yet i hear it always.
FORCES ME TO SEE
and i continue to ponder its substance.

The River

Once upon a time a pair of brothers walked to the edge of a river. On the other side came another pair of brothers to the edge.One from each of the brothers walked into the river to test the water. Each brother in the river called to the other, who they called their brother, or other son of their mother, to help keep them from being swept under, but sadly, no brother could help the other from going under. Now, two others and zero brothers. One other saw the other other sadly sobbing by the river, and said, “was I not a brother to any other before my brother was swept under?” “Now that our brothers are swept under shall they not be with but one mother?” said the other. And so these brothers, whose other went under shall remember the brother who went that day home to his mother.

Rainbows and You

In every color
the end of its brother.

In every color
the beginning of another.

Every color in its mother
I see the mother of every color.