Bring
forth the ardor
I
recite a love poem for my Lord –
more
of a plea for love
than
a profession of it –
a
love I hope to one day possess.
He
knows of it already,
before
this thick-tongued,
faint-of-heart
suitor can deliver it.
The
words I choose – in fact, any words at all –
are
not an agency of truth
but
of a wish and a hope and a pledge
to
allow Him as best I might
to
enter every hidden recess of my being,
to
bring forth the ardor dormant there, the depths
of
which I have never had the courage to plumb.
O
child of God, the love you crave (per Meher)
comes from within,
awaiting only its retrieval.
(painting by Mark Hodges)
Waiting
for me
How
patient You are! Waiting for me to
discover
and
uncover my fallacies and misconceptions,
my
inconsistencies and hypocrisies
without
belaboring the point
that
understanding has no meaning.
Waiting
for me to shed my infatuations –
with
myself and others. Ah, indeed!
How
hardy is my foolishness!
And
my mind a galloping steed!
All
these years of Your serenading
and
I have yet to become a rose –
to
flourish and adorn, to acquiesce and allow.
O
child of God, if only you were as enamored of Love
as you are of your persistent,
disputatious inquiries.
The
melody of a flute
Last
night I lay in bed
listening
to my heartbeat.
I
heard the sound of one hand clapping.
Above
my roof, a roll of thunder.
Or
was it my stomach rumbling?
Do
I want to live in the body God gave me,
or
continue to roam
the
phantasmagoric realm of my mind?
My
Lord’s hand upon the pen,
my
every poem emerges
from
His Word and His silence,
a
psalm of praise
from
me to Him
and
from Him to me.
O
child of God, obsessively you wander the wilds,
pursuing the windswept
melody of a flute.
A
childhood scar
A
childhood scar on my left hand,
like
a testament and lifetime friend,
is
no longer visible
among
the intricate creases of old age.
This
poetry is a lightning bolt,
piercing
the dutiful gray.
I
am a part time stenographer
with
nothing of my own to add.
I
need to be quiet now. Everything
belongs
to Him, is Him.
As
you read these words,
read
the silence between them
and
ask yourself, o child – if God is the Sole Doer,
what is your function
and purpose?
