Saturday, July 31, 2010

Desert Flowering

Desert Flowering


Sometimes
I wonder which side you are sleeping on and
If your hair is tousled, or if there are
Pillow case marks on your cheek.
Are you hugging a pillow like I do?
Have you gone through a dozen dozen like I have?
I wonder what wakes you up and
If you startle awake or slowly come into focus.
Do you stretch and thank God for making it
Through another night? Or smile as the
Sun streaks across your face.


As for me, I am acknowledging the dimensions
Where everything is possible.
I am tossing the pillows I cling to.
I am remembering who I am.
I am rising up out of the Jordan
Looking into the eyes of a madman
In a hair shirt, and seeing him and myself.


I have done my time in the desert and
I am done with illusions and temptations.
I have walked through the gate,
Into the garden, and out.
This old self has died, and I am out of the cave. 
Again.
The wrinkles on your cheek and what side you sleep on
No longer concern me. 
Instead,
Meet me with your true heart, your brave heart and
We can share our strength and
We can walk a path we create together.



© Anne 2010 (Revised)

Monday, July 26, 2010

Perhaps Patchen's best line....



"There are so many little dyings that it doesn't matter which of them is death."

Friday, July 2, 2010

Our New Poet Laureate


 
 For The Anniversary Of My Death


 Every year without knowing it I have passed the day
When the last fires will wave to me
And the silence will set out
Tireless traveller
Like the beam of a lightless star

Then I will no longer
Find myself in life as in a strange garment
Surprised at the earth
And the love of one woman
And the shamelessness of men
As today writing after three days of rain
Hearing the wren sing and the falling cease
And bowing not knowing to what
William Stanley Merwin