AMALGAM: HOPE/HOPELESSNESS

           	Begin summer
	       		Darkness revealed
		   			By harshness of light
			Surprised by fright of old friend death
			Lust for old enemy
				the longing for the last breath

            Dear God relieve me of consciousness

            And now fall double ought six
            Equinox
            Hope tempered by hopelessness
            Hopelessness tempered with
                      The possibility of hope


            mercy and mercilessness
	a single language
	tranquil heart of mandala


	       multiple sclerosis
           As my soul move towards Vietnam

	Soon I will be with the beggars
		on the streets of Hanoi	   				

AMALGAM: HOPE/HOPELESSNESS

           Begin summer
	     Darkness revealed
		By harshness of light
	Surprised by fright of old friend death
	Lust for old enemy
		The longing for the last breath

            Dear God relieve me of consciousness

            And now fall double ought six
            Equinox
            Hope tempered by hopelessness
            Hopelessness tender with
                      The possibility of hope

             As my soul move towards Vietnam

	Soon I will be with the beggars
		On the streets of Hanoi	   				

	mercy and mercilessness
	a single language
	tranquil heart of mandala
	          multiple sclerosis	


	mercy and mercilessness
	a single language
	tranquil heart of mandala
	          multiple sclerosis	
		
              
The Last Remaining Cup:
After the Earthquake
 
Sleepless in the forest
the night after the earth trembled
I stare up at the stars
   And think, ³How merciful their indifference
   Now when all our little houses
            have collapsed²
 
All over my altar the smell of spirit wine,
the sacramental mead
   labeled with Chagall¹s blue beast,
   benevolent and mad,
   bearing flowers for the groom and bride
 
After the earthquake
   I give the last remaining cup
To our long embittered neighbors
   In the ruins of their home
 
While I sweep up a broken mirror,
stand in line at the Salvation Army,
pick a purple wildflower
   for my reconstructed altar,
this rough beast
   returns again and again
   insistent, repulsive
      and unbearably kind
 
Having passed from some dark place
through a slit in the earth
may I make a home
for the one who has destroyed
      my home
 
GATE GATE
   PARAGATE
PARASAMGATE
   BODHI SVAHA
 

Blessed are they that Dare Love
(For Fay and Evarts)
 
Blessed are they that dare love
across generations
for they know the sweetness of life
in the shadow of death
 
Beloved born before birth
to this sudden meeting
time no vise but vast presence
the dusty desert sky
 life itself
brief as breath
 
Blessed are they that dare love
within the echo of time
for the intimacy of timelessness
rests in their bones till  parting
then beyond,
              beyond,
                     beyond

Blessed are they that dare love


Breaking Bread Together

Gather now the seeds
of the coming season
when we’ll let God run
through our fingers
down to the dark earth.

He that falls to her who folds the furrow
will awaken to the sound of the scythe

God the grain, yes,
but also God the scythe
God the stone that grinds the grain
and the leaven in the bread
and God the fire within the stone
and the thickening of the crust.

God the thumbs that break the bread of God
and the tongue that hungers for it
And God, at last, the last song sung
that makes complete the love and grief
of the fallen God



To the Sister of Solitude
(for Claire)

A woman, alone
         Hail Mary
glides free
         full of grace
in water blue or cloudless space
	blessed art thou
lamb or dove
	among women and blessed
pomegranate, pear, capulin, grape
	is the fruit 
peach, manzana, wild raspberry,
	of thy womb
Jesus enfold soon your daughter
	Mother of God
prays for us sinners now
	and at the hour of our death
        	Amen