Friday, July 18, 2025

A torch for You

A torch for You                                                                                
 
Become hopeless, You say.  
I’ve invested all the hope I have
 
in the One whose shoulders
bear the weight of multitudes;
 
entrusted with the Mandali’s souls –
Mani’s guileless adoration, for example;
 
Mehera’s unworldly devotion;
Eruch’s plea:  Don’t let me down!
 
Love makes no demands
but promises invoke certain expectations.
 
Faith is blind in the end,
but there are flares along the way.
 
I look to those burned-out, love-ravaged souls
who carried to their graves a torch for You
 
and the silent assurance and authority with which
You accepted their immeasurable sacrifice.
 
O child of God, you are a lover of Meher Baba!
What wondrous company you keep!




Monday, July 14, 2025

Darkness gathers

Darkness gathers                                                                            
 
I used to panic not feeling Your touch,
but now I know – You’re only adjusting Your grip.
 
You have Your hand on me! 
That’s the rare kernel of this odd, random life;
 
my comfort in this dreamscape
of impairment, bewilderment and fear.
 
I’ve gladly forked over all my cash.
The truth will come out in the end.
 
Someone will be by to collect my ticket.
I’ll give them the one You purchased.
 
Authorities will ask for my papers.
We’ll find out who I really am.
 
Darkness gathers as the train hurtles
          toward the outer provinces;
the cold sharpens; tongues become stranger
          and more raucous.
 
I panic when I get the notion I’m a lone traveler.
I don’t know where I’m going!  But Your valise is by the window.
 
Your scent lingers in the narrow compartment.
You’ve just stepped out for a bit of air.
 
O child of God, you want freedom from pain.
Liberation requires the dissolution of everything you hold dear.




Friday, July 11, 2025

Crossroads

Crossroads                                                                              
 
A drop in the ocean exists only
when removed abstractly from its milieu;
 
then we may put it under a microscope –
assign it innocence or guilt. 
 
At the crossroads of a dreamscape,
which way is valid?  East or west?  North or south?
 
Of what use is an elaborate tea ceremony, 
if the drinking water is contaminated?
 
Truth concerns not Itself with choices.
Eruch said, ‘True love is no sacrifice.’
 
Suppose Abraham’s terrible freedom   
was established in the raising of his knife;
 
Isaac’s freedom in the trust of his father --
one surrender tucked securely within the other.
 
And perhaps there was another, mutual surrendering --
beyond imagination and conception,
 
union requiring some sort of reciprocal dissolution --
the illusory drop absorbed into the oceanic whole.
 
O child of God, free will is cutting you to bits.
Only those who have no choice are free. 




Monday, July 7, 2025

Nonetheless

Nonetheless                                                                              
 
Liberation?  You offer servitude.
Attainment?  Lowliness. 
 
Empowerment?  Helplessness.
Purity and bliss?  Ghamela yoga:  
 
pain, grime, exhaustion –
ground to dust under Your heel.
 
You drive a hard bargain, Sir!  What sort
of fools signs up for that tour of duty?
 
Pilate thought to wash his hands of Jesus.
You make sure we get ours dirty –
 
graves deeply dug; Your garment’s hem
muddied and twisted in our fists.
 
Desperate, prodigal and impaired?  Yes.   
Apprehensive and imprudent?   Yes . . .
 
nonetheless, I love and am slave
of the Slave of the love of His lovers.
 
O child of God, servitude?  You bleat
at each pinch of the fetters, each tug of the chain.