True and false
I am your one true Friend, said Meher.
Which means, I gather, all my other friends
are false (and vice versa); false
in a heedless, human sort of way.
God have mercy on our faithless little selves
as we try to piece and hold the world together,
toe the mark, keep the faith, imitate the Christ
and practice the holy Presence of God;
as we try to grasp the skirt of the one true Friend –
true as in faithful
and true as in the only One beyond falsity,
weakness, ignorance and illusion.
O child of God, escape the duplicity of this world
by entering the realm of the Other.
God’s in love
Do you want to find God?
Apparently, He’s near at hand –
in your own heart, for example.
God’s in there (I’m told) – in love.
God’s in love. In
yours and mine.
Take and give it freely, where you find it,
within and without. Ladle
it out in full measure.
Where to find God? God’s
in love.
O child, God is not a noun.
God is a verb.
Empty-handed
It wasn’t until life got the best of me
(I’m ashamed to say), that I came to my Lord,
empty-handed save for a bit of that hard won
humility He had requested from the first.
Came to the dead end of a long road
at the rim of a desert I was loathe to cross alone.
Then all His love talk came back to me.
His promise became my solace.
A patchwork faith (by His grace),
an ounce of patience; scant courage
and a modicum of obedience;
still bereft of the love that should be there.
But I’ll leave that to Him, having not a clue
what it is or how to go about acquiring it.
O child of God, lay down your trophies.
Love is not reward for a job well done.
The skirt of eternity
Hand held as a child returning home
still excited, stiff-necked
from the thundering fireworks
above the city green, light years
below the immutable constellations.
In my children’s eyes later,
viewing their gunshot rise, arc and flare,
reflections, sighs, barely looking up,
where once it had burned me
deeper and lasted longer.
Now traipsing out an old man,
the lonely, tree-shaped, silent nights
to view only the ordinary and trustworthy,
perfectly-aligned comets, moon, planets and stars.
O child of God, ignore the passing fancies;
grab onto the skirt of eternity.
