Glimpses

.contact

THE SPACE clean and ordinary, greeters holding nicely between aloof
And overborne, avoiding excess, order called at the appointed minute,
And when opportunity presented to raise my hand and speak
I stumped them with a teaser yet slept badly that night—

Haunted by Jesus? Myself running from the eating of his body
And the drinking of his blood? Or running from apostasy—
From the rending of sacred matters, stretching sinews of civilization
Safeguarding the chief sacred matter uniting all Christians, the holy Trinity?
Or do I run with Nietzsche? Because God is dead—pushed off a cliff by His own—
Laughing as down He went into the place only He knows.
‘I have a spirit of blood’—thus spake Zarathustra—
‘Once spirit was God, then it was man, and now it is mob.’
Running until my feet bled and my body wasted
And I realized I was free by the spirit of love.

.prayer

A SPIRIT of steel hardly suffices
To approach the lioness
Who kills for the pride—
Hardly suffices to await
The bloom of the apricot
When hungry.

Faith poorly endowed in darkness
Wearies of hands held high
For angels to take—
Endowed poorly to step
In honor of darkness
Broken only by starlight.

Dawn is the coldest time of night
Readying rushes of wind
In the unsettlings—
Pleasing the lioness
Seemingly—
Alert.

.kingdom

A KINGDOM is generally ruled by a king
Who does deeds and an occasional awesome thing,
Who in general has the help of trusty knights.

More often than not peasants serve the king
With hard work the weal of the commonwealth to bring
And the song of his deeds they sing,
Jubilant with sustenance and covering and families all a-light.

Castles by and large serve as homes for a king,
Shared with trusty knights who sit in a ring
To confer in trust of peasantry in its many plights.

And if power beseems there might be a wing
Above all—a pope over king—
Beloved or besmirched depending—
The cloud above mountain beyond days and nights.


.foundation

AS THE DUST of New Mexico
Could suck the River dry
If it tried, so I yearn.

A reason—no, a reason—I mean a reason to believe
And do and don’t and live and die
And give it up through desperate situation till I cry—

.day-journey

DON’T RIP this book in two
I tell my troubled soul—
Eat it—chance it—who rips who?
This journey—prize me whole.

It opens with a prayer—
I pray—or so I used to—
Till God went snuggles in the cloud
And I sought another avenue.

Could fluttering flags say our prayers?
A wisp of smoke? Our groans?
Maybe a mechanic in our brains
Or a toss of copper coins.

My storm-tossed soul
Surrenders—the heebie-jeebies reel—
Subdued I read as on parole
With hope it will not kill.

Gathering to glory
Too like the God I knew
But not the mountain I once climbed
Which laughed—a chill went through—

This book now reads in glory
Then crunches down reverse—
Paradise—promised gardens—
Then dark-eyed babes in service.

Housed within the male loins
Lurk desires that can grow—
Unto an end—will bless or ruin—
Seeds of love or seeds of sorrow—sow.

Reminiscent of the Tao
Ambulating a pleasant path
And then—a leafy hole—
The ankle turns—unwelcome word of wrath.

Thoughts run dry and classes end—
The journey—to a halt—
Leaves reader heavy in confusion—
Soul pondering a quiet doubt.

.alternatives

BUDDHISM:

Eight matters strung upon a thread
To be handled rightly so—
But what is right
Amidst the choices in the spread?

HINDUISM:

Careful human thoughts
In highest reaches conceivable
To challenge the disaster of the dead
And to presume its portentous path.

TAOISM:

Wonderful thoughts—
Poetic thoughts—
Aspiring to the Way
If black and white make red.

CONFUCIANISM:

Has the wisdom of the ancient sage
Honored with laurels on his brow
Now been put to bed
By the sayings of Chairman Mao?

JUDAISM:

Guarding well the legacy
Of scripture and identity—
Scratched hard by weedy ones
Shading the serpent’s head.

CHRISTENDOM:

Grown by its wish of weathertop
Yet bound by ultimatum at a third
Of the trees and the stars and the ships—
Heavenly headwind vexing its stead.

ISLAM:

Places and roles
Mindful of God—
A thicket
Suddenly bred.

CATHOLICISM:

Inventing purgatory
To soften the brutality
Of serving the God who is said to have said,
Live with the devil or live with me.

PROTESTANTISM:

Protesting the woes and wrongs
While seeking fixes
Scattered along a thousand paths
Daring to be tread.

ORTHODOXY:

Nations and traditions—
Waving incense from a burner—
Pulling the icon on its sled—
Long black robes and such.

LATTER-DAY SAINTS:

Yea—says the book best read
Starting at the start
Gathering disgruntled ones
Baking Jesus’ bread.

JEHOVAH’S WITNESSES:

Finding the slave of foodstuffs
By whose hand they are fed
Till they crack and gnaw the bones
That satisfy their sighs and groans.

UNITARIANISM:

Liberating the Trinity?
Unity begged of humanity?
Marching the muffled melody
Where freedom of thought has led.

FREEMASONRY:

Scriptures sacred
Left unmooted—
Mysteries to masters—
Turning gold into lead.

HUMANISM:

Not wanting to see the elegy
Writ for the world hoped to be
In resignation now realized
Surrendered instead.

AGNOSTICISM or APATHEISM:

Currents flowing—
Winds a-blowing—
Multitudes a-knowing—
Steerage abed.

SPIRITISM:

Hating the hokey House of Holiness
Thus worshiping its unseen foes
Who vouchsafe the very vestments
Vocative of the skin they shed.

WAR:

The red god riding glory
To savage and to shred
The best of this world
For the mastery unfurled.

LOVE:

Following evening—
Leading morning—
Passions sped
To consummated end.

POETCHILDE:

Peering at papers pinned on his fridge—
Swaying and praying for hours—
Formulating mighty thoughts
Or serving malady inbred?

ATHEISM:

After all hope has been bled
From the hapless soul
Stoically standing
On the brim of the bowl.

PANTHEISM:

All you gods and goddesses
Hiding in the crevices
Of scholarly pantology,
Do you know your dog has fled?

FALSE RELIGION:

Some seeking a life—
Some honoring ways—
Others leering in power—
Pronouncing good and bad wed—

TRUE RELIGION:

Fearing the story of the primal forsaker
Of the path of compliance for a path of dread
And nailing the ultimate question:
Do people have need of their Maker?

.speculation

Pandemic rumination

THE FIRE CHIEF of Los Alamos when I was growing up impressed upon us Boy Scouts seeking the firemanship merit badge that no truth whatsoever could procure residence within the tenacious rumor called “spontaneous combustion,” meaning that a human would occasionally burst into flame until turned to ash, marking a bizarre moment upon this Earth attested to by the vehement voice of the few witnesses lacking evidence of registry or trace. According to the Bible and hinted at by Greek mythology, demons once sojourned upon this Earth, having lingered at gaze, thus assuming humanoid bodies from which they impregnated women, producing a hybrid race mythologically called “demigods.” This was tolerated by God until the Great Flood, attested to by traditional stories from many lands. According to Biblical exegesis, this Flood chased the demons back to the spirit realm, killing the hybrid offspring. Could it be that in hippie days when skirts were short enough to tempt the tempters that demons who came down to repeat their stunt were met with the Fire of God?


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