What does love say
To the mind’s swirling creations,
To its entrenched angst
And to all that ails
And seems intractable?
Love says nothing,
But like a tide of warm indulgence,
Love flows as the body of the boundless self,
Flows unstoppable to bitter ills
Dissolving all but itself
And freeing that self
From the illusions
That seem to bind it.
I look into your eyes
And find my joy brimming,
For I could fall inside
The clarity of your seeing
And swim free
In nothing,
Buoyant in the being we share.
You told me of a Tuscan life
Picking olives,
A world where obstacles
Had dissolved
And all that evolved
Was the beautifully self
Looking at the same time
Both inward and out.
I tasted the olive of happiness
And lived your life
As my life
Dwelling in kinship
With you,
Where you were nothing but myself
Looking kindly from another perspective.
Do not attend
To the negative mind
With its litany of faults
And endless tribulations,
For there is only calculation there
And the ceaseless multiplication
Of a seemingly separate
And beleaguered self.
–
Instead,
Acknowledge the life-giving principle,
For there is life in life,
Rich abundance
And love’s infinity
In the looking to it,
The looking in it,
The abiding in the self
That knows.
–
Acknowledge its presence
And like magic,
Be in presence
For the acknowledging
And being
Are the very same thing.
The one looking at truth
Is the truth looking;
And in this
The ‘so called’ negative mind
Is offered the most exquisite kindness,
A forever home inside the self
And the gift
That it need not be other than it is.
Last night
Brought a frost,
A coating of crystalline white
Drying the air, stiffening every leaf,
Crisping every damp thing,
Stilling all life
But for the sparrows.
Into this
Plooms my breath,
Brought momentarily
From the invisible;
I feel wonder at the breadth
And reach
Of the ether if my being.
I select a log,
Choosing one with flawless grain,
Straight lines, unknotted,
Placing it upright.
I lift the axe, aim
Half heft and half let it fall.
If it is true
My kindling spilts with a snap
Akin to the most beautiful synchronicity,
The grain parting
As if only a thought’s worth
Cleaved it separate
And clean.
I cut more,
And while I swing my axe
And watch my basket fill
With rough cut pieces,
I listen to the sparrows
And the stillness,
Enjoying my breath
Realising wintery all about me.
No matter how the world evolves,
Whether true to life
Or spiralling in madness,
The life principle
Remains pure and untouched.
–
Invest your life
In its sweetness
And disregard the rest,
However seductive and convincing,
For only in love
–
Is sweetness manifest.
And if the world descends
Wholly into madness,
Still, life’s truth
Holds fast.
–
And if all obey the call to anger,
But your mind left last
And abiding in love,
It will not matter
And will surely be enough.
distilledvoice 