In a Dark Time

In a dark time, the eye begins to see

I meet my shadow in the deepening shade;

I hear my echo in the echoing wood--

A lord of nature weeping to a tree,

I live between the heron and the wren,

Beasts of the hill and serpents of the den.

What's madness but nobility of soul

At odds with circumstance?  The day's on fire!

I know the purity of pure despair,

My shadow pinned against a sweating wall,

That place among the rocks -- is it a cave,

Or winding path?  The edge is what I have.

A steady storm of correspondences!

A night flowing with birds, a ragged moon,

And in broad day the midnight come again!

A man goes far to find out what he is --

Death of the self in a long, tearless night,

All natural shapes blazing unnatural light.

Dark, dark my light, and darker my desire.

My soul, like some heat-maddened summer fly,

Keeps buzzing at the sill.  Which I is I?

A fallen man, I climb out of my fear.

The mind enters itself, and God the mind

And one is One, free in the tearing wind.

--Theodore Roethke

You're the One

Nature gives us shapeless shapes

Clouds and waves and flame

But human expectation

Is that love remains the same

And when it doesn't

We point our fingers

And blame, blame, blame.

--Paul Simon

Edmund Pollard

I would I had thrust my hands of flesh

Into the disk flowers, bee-infested,

Into the mirror-like core of fire

Of the light of life, the sun of delight.

For what are anthers worth, or petals

Or halo-rays?  Mockeries, shadows

Of the heart of the flower, the central flame!

All is yours, young passer-by;

Enter the banquet room with the thought;

Don't sidle in as if you were doubtful

Whether you're welcome -- the feast is yours!

Nor take but a little, refusing more

With a bashful "Thank you" when you're hungry.

Is your soul alive?  Then let it feet!

Leave no balconies where you can climb;

Nor milk-white bosoms where you can rest;

Nor golden heads with pillows to share;

Nor wine cups while the wine is sweet;

Nor ecstasies of body or soul.

You will die, no doubt, but die while living

In depths of azure, rapt and mated,

Kissing the queen-bee, Life!

--Edgar Lee Masters

Unanswered Prayers

Sometimes I thank God for unanswered prayers

Remember when you're talking to the man upstairs

Just because he doesn't answer doesn't mean he don't care

Some of God's greatest gifts are unanswered prayers.

--Garth Brooks

Speak Less to the One You Love

If they cannot understand your silence

They will never understand your words.

--Unknown

On Stripping Bark from Myself (For Jane, Who Said Trees Die From It)

Because women are expected to keep silent about

Their close escapes, I will not keep silent

And if I am destroyed (naked tree!) someone will please

Mark the spot where I fall and know I could not live

Silent in my own lies

Hearing their "how nice she is!"

Whose adoration of the retouched image

I so despise.

No.  I am finished with living

For what my mother believes

For what my father and brother defend

For what my lover elevates

For what my sister, blushing, denies or rushes to embrace.

I find my own

Small person

A standing self

Against the world; an equality of wills

I finally understand.

Besides:

My struggle was always against

An inner darkness: I carry within myself

The only known keys

To my death -- to unlock life, or close it shut forever.

A woman who loves wood grains, the color yellow

And the sun, I am happy to fight

All outside murderers

As I see I must.

--Alice Walker

Steady as the Beating Drum

One of these mornings, and it won't be very long,  you're gonna look for me, and I'll be gone.

--Janie, "Their Eyes Were Watching God" (by Zora Neal Hurston

Ah, Mara, I see you.

Form feeling and perception,

Consciousness and formations,

I am not this.

This isn't mine.

This one is detached from it.

--The Buddha

Medicine Buddha Mantra

I would never disparage you, or keep you at arm's length

Where you only see your weaknesses, I only see your strength.

I would never despise you, or put you down in any way.

Because it's clear to me

I can plainly see

You'll be a buddha someday.

I love you.

--Greg Fain and Ben Gustin

If You're Going Through Hell

Well I been deep down in that darkness,

I been down to my last match.

Felt a hundred different demons

Breathing fire down my back

And I knew that if I stumbled

I'd fall right into the trap that they were laying.

If you're going through Hell

Keep on going, don't slow down;

If you're scared don't show it.

You might get out

Before the devil even knows you're there.

--Rodney Atkins

Ruby Tells All

When I was told, as Delta children were,

That crops don't grow unless you sweat at night,

I thought that it was my own sweat they meant.

I have never felt as important again

As on those early mornings, waking up,

My body slick, the moon full on the fields.

That was before air conditioning.

Farm girls sleep cool now and wake up dry

But still the cotton overflows the fields.

We lose everything that's grand and foolish;

It all becomes something else.  One by one,

Butterflies turn into catterpillars

And we grow up, or more or less we do,

And, Lord, we do lie then. We lie so much

Truth has a false ring and it's hard to tell.

I wouldn't take crap off anybody

If I just knew I was getting crap

In time not to take it.  I could have won

A small one now and then if I was smarter,

But I've poured coffee here too many years

For men who rolled in in Peterbilts,

And I have gotten into bed with some

If they could talk and seemed to be in pain.

I never asked for anything myself;

Giving is more blessed and leaves you free.

There was a man, married and fond of whiskey.

Given the limitations of men, he loved me.

Lord, we laid concern upon our bodies

But then he left.  Everything has its time.

We used to dance.  He made me feel the way

A human wants to feel and fears to.

He was a slow man and didn't expect.

I would get off work and find him waiting.

We'd have a drink or two and kiss awhile.

Then a bird-loud morning late one April

We woke up naked.  We had made a child.

She's grown up now and gone though God knows where.

She ought to write, for I do love her dearly

Who raised her carefully and dressed her well.

Everything has its time.  For thirty years

I have never had a thought about time.

Now, turning through newspapers, I pause

To see if anyone was passed away

Was younger than I am.  If one was

I feel hollow for a little while

But then it passes.  Nothing matters enough

To stay bent down about.  You have to see

That some things matter slightly and some don't.

Dying matters a little.  So does pain.

So does being old.  Men do not.

Men live by negatives, like don't give up,

Don't be a coward, don't call me a liar,

Don't ever tell me don't.  If I could live

Two hundred years and had to be a man

I'd take my grave.  What's a man but a match,

A little stick to start a fire with?

My daughter knows this, if she's alive.

What could I tell her now, to bring her close,

Something she doesn't know, if we met somewhere?

Maybe that I think about her father,

Maybe that my fingers hurt at night,

Maybe that against appearances

There is love, constancy and kindness,

That I have dresses I have never worn.

--Miller Williams

Landslide

I took my love and I took it down

I climbed a mountain and I turned around.

And I saw my reflection in the snow covered hills,

But the landslide brought me down.

Oh, mirror in the sky, what is love?

Can the child in my heart rise above?

Can I sail through the changing ocean tides?

Can I handle the seasons of my life?

Well, I've been afraid of changing 

Cause I've built my life around you.

But time makes you bolder, children get older.

I'm getting older, too.

Wide Open Spaces

Who doesn't know what I'm talking about 
Who's never left home, who's never struck out 
To find a dream and a life of their own 
A place in the clouds, a foundation of stone 

Many precede and many will follow 
A young girl's dream no longer hollow 
It takes the shape of a place out west 
But what it holds for her, she hasn't yet guessed... 

 She traveled this road as a child 
Wide eyed and grinning, she never tired 
But now she won't be coming back with the rest 
If these are life's lessons, she'll take this test 

She needs wide open spaces 

Room to make her big mistakes 
She needs new faces 
She knows the high stakes

--Dixie Chicks

Life's a Dance

The longer I live the more I believe
You do have to give if you wanna recieve
There's a time to listen, a time to talk
And you might have to crawl even after you walk
Had sure things blow up in my face
Seen the longshot, win the race
Been knocked down by the slamming door
Picked myself up and came back for more

Life's a dance you learn as you go
Sometimes you lead, sometimes you follow
Don't worry about what you don't know
Life's a dance you learn as you go

--John Michael Montgomery