The silent Christ

The silent Christ                 

The silent Christ spoke only with His eyes –

hanged from an invisible cross.

His sheep not scattered but, becoming lions

and dragons, becoming torches

roaming the night.  The silent Christ

marveled at the intricacies of His own effort

and the trouble God took for just one Word.

Spoke with His eyes, His blood, bones,

heart and brain to call forth loudly

His children from the wilderness

which has enveloped them

to His table of bread and wine.

The silent Christ lies in sweet repose

as the hue and cry of the world echoes

and fades around Him, His work completed

one hundred percent, His silence going about now,

methodically, drowning out   

the blasphemies of the world.

O child of God, be silent yourself.  Don’t speak

of things you know so very little about.

                        

On Center

On Center                                                                                        

A novel is not a depiction of reality

but, of reality charged with purpose.

Being on Center is like that.

No one enters casually its gates,

nor offhandedly empties out

onto the busy highway beyond;

no chance encounters nor random exchanges

and, around every corner –

infinite possibilities and yet 

inevitable occurrences

charged with purpose and revelation;

hurtling towards a rendezvous

along the winding footpaths, within

the small cabins, the communal kitchens,

charged with purpose and beauty, nothing

left to chance, nurtured and arranged long ago –

and the invited drop in

and the uninvited hurry past

the pristine and infinite possibilities of such a place

built with love and responded to by Love Itself.

O child of God, home is where the heart is.  Hurry,

every chance you get, to His home in the west.

                          

Song link -- Love must love

Love must love

D                A      D                 G

Love must love, hearts must break,

D                A    G               D

tears must fall for heaven’s sake

G             D   G                       D     G

that’s the law love cannot forsake

        D       G   D               G          D          G     D

love must     love                 love must            love

D           A            D                 G

Rivers flow          sun shines above

D             A   G                D

night will fall and love must love,

G             D   G                          D     G

that’s the law, love can never break

        D       G   D               G          D          G     D

love must     love                  love must             love

                   Bm                     A

Everywhere you look is love

                   G                               D

It’s what the world is made of

                   Bm                            A

You want to know the reason why

                         G                                       A

we live and laugh, suffer and die

                         G          A      G          A                      D      A

it’s love, O love, love, O love, love must love

         

D           A          D                 G

All there is        below and above

D      A                  G             D

only love             love must love

G             D      G                                D     G

that’s the law –          We do it all for love

        D       G   D               G          D          G     D

love must    love                  love must            love

To Whom I write

To Whom I write                                                                                

Sometimes, I lose track of my soul

writing this poetry, believing words

are the goal and for others

I’m spilling (like blood from a vein)

ink upon the page, but I’m reminded

at the heel of every missive –

O child of God – to Whom I write

and to whose benefit I pursue

this circuitous alchemy of words.

Lord, You leave me no choice –

by that I am ever tormented

and for that I’m ever grateful. 

You keep shutting the door

to any possibility of another life. 

Hewing it down, accompanying me

in my worldly pursuit, as I sort

through the muddled vagaries of Illusion,

renounce the false and cling to the true

and, among the history of seekers,

renowned and anonymous, take my place.

O child of God, there are only two – child

and Father – until there is only One.

                             

Beads on one string

Beads on one string                                                                        

Abstaining from honey and roots,

leather and silk but, that’s not it; 

five times prayer, the pilgrimage,

no, no.  Not the bread and wine

nor a grain of rice per day;

not a mustard seed; not mortification;

not abstinence; not indivisibility

nor devas and demigods, that’s not it;

not brotherly love nor pacifism,

not the Trinity nor the One; not faith, hope, charity;

not servitude nor mastery, not that, not that;

not the ark, the grail, the ka’aba, the holy texts,

not the Silence nor the Word,

not practices nor disciplines,

ceremonies nor performances, no, that’s not it.

It’s not, it’s not. 

God can reach around any corner, at any time,

and pull from the rubble a lover, a seeker, a saint.

At some juncture, to adhere is to fall away; to follow

is to fall behind – the path requiring, at times,  

abandonment of the path, faith – the leaving of the fold

and fidelity – the incoherent ravings of an infidel.

O child of God, put your faith in perplexity;

find God by renouncing everything you know.

                           

Song Link -- Love Divine

Love Divine

 G                             G+Eb                                       G+E

I thought I knew       all that love had to give        but what kind of love

G+F                                              C                           Am                             

gives me the strength to live  and it comforts me when  times get rough

C                                  G

Your love is a love divine

G                                G+Eb                             G+E

You stole my heart     never said one word Your silent treatment    

G+F                                                      C                                     Am

sweetest sounds I ever heard      You got through to me    Yours I’ll forever be

   C                                      G

 ‘cause Your love is a love divine

                             D                         C

Chorus:                Now I know of a love that’s true

                             D                               C

                             Now no other kind of love will do

G              G+Eb               G+E           G+F

                             ‘cause I’ve waited, searching my lonely life through                            

                                        C                                Am

just to find You, Dear   and to hold You near

  C                                         G

‘cause Your love is a love divine

G                             G+Eb                                       G+E

I’m a pilgrim        but no matter where I roam          I’ll never get lost   

G+F                                                C                                            Am

‘cause I know where I call home       it’s right by Your side         my Lord and my guide

C                                           G

‘cause Your love is a love divine

          C                             G               C                             G

it’s a love love love love divine    it’s a love love love love divine

Awaiting

Awaiting                                                                                         

This attempted leaving of myself,

journeying inward;

down the rough-hewn passageways,

bearing the torch;

shaping and paring the heart;

genuflection; dissolution,

the chastening of the flesh,

narrowing of the gaze,

brooking of the burden,

elevating the chin,

erecting the spine:

harboring and dwelling within,

tending the fire; awaiting

His gaze and grace.

O child of God, silence and exaltation,

by turns. 

 

 

He dwelt in Love

He dwelt in love

He dwelt in love -- speaking not a word;
bore His cross in silent pain.

Only by the heart is God's voice heard.

Water drips from the dipping gourd.

Christ trod the earth again.
He dwelt in love - speaking not a word.

Fetters rived beneath the sword;
sadra dust-covered, blood-stained.

Only by the heart is God's voice heard.

Servants scurry, gazes lowered,

a feast prepared of wine and grain.
He dwelt in love -- speaking not a word.

A bargain no one else could afford,
He sunk the arrow, struck the vein.

Only by the heart is God's voice heard.

Flesh endeavored, the goal secured,

forerunner of heaven's glorious reign,
He dwelt in love -- speaking not a word.

Only by the heart is God's voice heard.