That Which we are Seeking

Love, why do I not recognize you everywhere?
In everyone, because that’s where you are
Is it not, Beloved that I search outside myself to find
Wildfire in the forest, stain of soul in matter

I have loved you without knowing I did
All the time, all the while, I’ve been searching
Trying to build myself up into something
Seeking some semblance of security

But I have duped myself, sought you in the
Wrong mediums, forgotten your signature, your form
The rancorous unity is celebrating everywhere
But I don’t hear it, I only walk in my own shadow

But it isn’t enough, I’m a global spark
Born to celebrate the splendour that is our love
Creation everywhere, life’s miracle pride

Our love to be alive, it’s palpable, not indifferent
The signals before I love you, the signals
Of the universe to all loving things, it’s natural
I knew all the rooms of existence, before I understood

In Times of Trouble

I know what my heart is like
It’s everything and everyone
Dying inward for a bit of belonging

Hoping to touch a bit of life
For the sake of being reborn in identity
In sharing experience and tenderness
Was it for this I once uttered prayers?
That I should retire alone the years?

Bear me a crown of golden foreverafters
Love is the gold gown I’ve worn
In good times and the bad

If I grow a bit bitterly on life’s low shrub
Do not say I knew not flowers or
That I did not give everything
To the ones who truly mattered
Spring on horseback, Autumn on these lips

I knew and loved all that I could
My thin fingers lifting bright threads
Of music from the clouds

I know what my heart is like
Eun Ji, don’t you? I won’t sit smiling
But I’ll listen with Dandelions
And some brief word from you.

The Rod and the Ocean

Lady, I will touch with my mind’s eyes
And with my soul’s voice whisper
You naked with the inner touch
My empathy will consume you
Like the bright obscene passion of my
Full poemed need for you
And we will be myths living
You are the one water
And I will be the one rod of sunlight
To enter you and twist like serpents
And in time’s lonely embrace
I will remeber our union
To bring you to the darkest moment of pleasure
And you will blush like a burning bush
In the flower of our heat, a world
Will be born, not unlike Mars or Pluto
We will terraform worlds
Like our sexual bliss moved our clay
And we will repeat the ritual
Like youthful months of our marriage.

I am myself by Love’s design

Love’s thrill is not long
to balance out the tragedy
this poor suff’ring Heart
that must change in change herself
to endeavor the charms of fleeting
pleasures that charm when young
growing so old a few years later

Love has in store a kind of prosperity
of loyal years and pleasant goodbyes
that time and death become as friends
in time’s flight of fiery bliss
where with tender signs we review
all that has come to pass and gone
as if too soon, to sustain the memory

why is the Spring so sullen on summer’s brink?
ah, now I understand just what
beauty the flowers bear, the mothers sow
in the empathy of a lifetime and of servitude
love’s design is born to be the victim
of all mankind and instinct’s hunt
that cares not who falls and who shall rise.

The First Year of Love is like Icing

Relationships are like private
Dyadic simulations, or gamification of
Skin and soul, heart in time

Somewhere someone is travelling
In your direction, maybe furiously lonely
Ready to fill your loneliness with love
And we exchange partners
Learning from each other

So serious of the rules and tribulations
But it’s natural to be monogamous
And it’s natural to separate, no point fretting

Perhaps it’s natural for some to love
The same gender, change genders, be polygamous
Through blizzards of emotions, deserts of lust
The heart loves to cross torrents
Dramas and recognize you as a friend

Reckless and beautiful are our needs
To relate, belong, be touched, finding like-minded
Companions in this desolate and tedious existence

But never forget that they are simulations, illusions
Myths we make to feel comfortable
And experiential methods of our own spirit
To educate us about the true reality of the universe
Or that part of her we were meant to experience

Relationships remain the core of human beauty
The customer experience of personal joy
The first year is like icing, then the cake

Begins to show through, too sugary
Or a sweet thing without the right occasion
I’ll wait for the fruit-salad, the encore
The idea to save the best for last.

Let us learn and forget

Let us learn and forget

(To all those going through or contemplating divorce)

Let us forget, with generosity
Those who cannot love us
For we loved them, did we not?

Gave them our heart & services
Let us learn and forget
With empathy move forwards
For ourselves and our children

For those who do not aspire
Cannot always do us justice!
Let us forgive and care not

For caring deserves a loving spouse
Let us never forget, the martyrs we have been
I know, I’ve heard all the stories
Let us be our own champions, for once

And go shopping for ourselves
And say, to the morning
“I am proud to be free of duty”
I have more to give, I owe myself better!

The Last Ballerina

The Last Ballerina

And there’s no grave my love
That wasn’t this heart a grave all along?
Dreaming with death and fantasy weddings

And hoping to arrive at last
At life’s banquet, with her evening cup!
And there’s no end my love

That wasn’t this spirit an end in itself?
With faith enough in things unseen
To arrive with langhter at the end

And ask with a common smile
Was it enough? “What is enough?”

In no shape for Time

Outside of Time

I am always and ever
At any given point
Aware of the space between us
How we all follow some destined path
Gold, silver, green, purple
Fates, I call them ribbons

The signatures of light
We leave in the hearts of other people
When we are gone
They can approximate
How close we came to them
Inwardly, all symbolic

ii

With bodies as translucent
As the future will afford us
I am always and ever
Taking off clothes, memories
Assumptions, judgement
To reach the stillness between us

Where I wait for you dear
If you are lonely
You can always find me
Anticipating mind-touch
And the rain together like
The fragrance of forgiveness.

Slow Dance

Slow Dance

When with lust and life
I am smitten
And to your bosom
And breasts I cleave
Don’t call me weak

That youth and femininity
Have power over me
I worship the sacred in you
As you worship the sacred in me
With joy and naked song

We make love and stare
At god, rainbow, universe
For each body rare

And each holy kiss
I find divine repair
The flesh at least allows
A bit of blood and glory
In pleasure few, or foul, or taken

With but these lips
And a sainthood’s heart
Evolution decreed naked girls

With silver combs and red lips
Have thus a hold on me
In every decade, for the glory
Of life’s bounty, is in you.

Featured photography: http://www.deviantart.com/art/Pure-Form-504629194

Significant Other

I’ve braided your looks
Into my soul like
A knot of nurturance

Your burgundy tongue
Of earth-laced hope
In truth, I’m not sure

I would survive without you
The writing that writes in me
And the art of harmony

Incarnated in our daily lives
Through the paired fortunes
Of our highs and lows

I live in awe of your embrace
Your laugh over our ashes
The destiny of waiting

A lifetime just for a moment
We’ve swam in darkness
Endured a loyalty of stupidity

To people who were ingenuine
I’ve tattooed your language
Into my consciousness

That I might be able to
Speak and write mandarin
Poems one day, so that

The spoken tongues
Of the ancient Taoists
Might speak through me.

Photography courtesy: http://www.deviantart.com/art/Giulia-Mihai-Flowers-501597812

To the lovely couple

I seem to have loved you in numberless forms, numberless times…
In life after life, in age after age, forever.
My spellbound heart has made and remade the necklace of songs,
That you take as a gift, wear round your neck in your many forms,
In life after life, in age after age, forever.
~ Rabindranath Tagore

During our love, houses were completed
spiritual homes where you
rebuilt my foundations

idealistic comforts that
somehow I had forgotten
among the gardens, listing
the essential spiritual pleasure
that had no country to root for

but accepted all beings
During our love, we felt
a peace where we were completed

finally, irrevocably, whole
as if lost forever previously
our touch was that mutual
sensation of shared mysticism
the chime of fortitude

and unity so foreign to our
previous human experience
you and I were still like

strange visions to behold
universal love, at just
the right temperature.

Treatise on Rabia al Basr

In
my soul
There is a temple, a shrine, a garden
where my religion is love
nature, freedom, peace
Where time
Does not have a body
And the future is not
A question of economy, survival, friendship
But where all dissolves
In divinity and connectedness
where ecstasy gets poured into itself
spreading across the galaxies
like a spiritual luminosity
In
my soul
There is a voice, a whisper, a melody
where all art retreats in deeper revelry
and hope
Does not require a family, nation, empire
But can include everything, everyone, all beings.

Treatise on God II

Here, bear testimony, you are your own best witness
Do unto others as you
Would have them to do you
Love must be sincere, therefore

Cling to what is good
Be compassionate at all times
Love has no intent to harm
The fulfillment of the law is kindness

Mercy, charity, service, helpfulness
Hope, love and faith together move –
But the greatest of these is love
And Love for God’s work in us

Dear friends, let us love on another
For love comes from God
Everyone who loves has been
Born God and knows God

There is no fear in love, therefore
Perfect love drives out all fear, anxiety
Fear punishes, love gives
Say yes to love, and no to fear

At every juncture of your life
Here, bear testimony, the love in you
Will be your own judge and jury
Great love is not only for self, family, friends

But for all beings, all creatures
There is no chosen people, no right nation
All planets together move in the galaxy
A friend loves at all times, whoever forgets God

That is their concern, for God so loved the world
There we were created to love the world too
No one can serve two masters, so listen
Inside your heart, and serve the true soul

For in thine own conscience thou findst
The truth of thy love, and all fulfillment therein.

Treatise on Jesus of Nazareth

But I say to you, Love your
Enemy as you would your Neighbor
Your Neighbor as you would your Mother

Do not persecute these or yourself
Father who is in heaven; he would not approve
Be compassionate for all creatures

Do not let your hearts be troubled
Trust in yourself, as the universe incarnate
Trust also in others, as if they were you

Ask for it and these be given unto you;
Search for it, and she will find you –
Love, like the universe opens all doors for you

A new command you were given:
Love one another, as nature gave you life
Free of possibility, full of potential

For the universe loved her many children
Eternal life endures, like a lover
Whose objects are not limited, but unlimited

Whose bliss is unconditional, not only for thy family
but I say to you, Love more if you want
To be closer to perfection, keep only possessions

In your heart, that is thy only commandment
For what shall it profit a being, who forgets how to love?

Treatise on Yunus Emre

I tried to make sense of the holy books
Until love arrived,
Then all the scriptures became
A holy single syllable
Her word was “love”

Divine love is the one I need
Day and night I burn –
I read the faces of suffering creatures
To find the lips of thy glory!
My pity would break into an outcry

That went beyond all God’s images
The only source I have left is your love
I find no great joy in being alive
If only to be one drop
That contains an ocean

Each passing day fans and rouses flames
Of the desire to love both worlds
As the same, Heaven and Earth
My abode and my destination
I tired to love all the people of the world

Until I felt you by my side, in everybody
Do not let me wander from your love
Don’t let me leave your door
And if I lose myself
Let me find myself again in You.

Treatise on Hafiz

Beloved, your love should never
Be offered to the mouth of a stranger
Only to someone who dares
To cut pieces of your soul
Out with a knife of the sharpest attachment

To warm you with your own warmth!
Even after all this time
The sun would never dare to say
To the Earth, “You owe me”
Then never seek your just rewards

But learn in this life how to truly give!
It lights up the whole sky
Run my dear, from anything
that does not strength thy budding wings
Awaken thy heart to the necessity

Of only one language, human love
For all other things are mere sayings in the wind
For only by loving can you taste
Your mortality, nearing the God
Through the eyes of the angels

To scream from the guts of Infinite existence.
What we speak becomes the house
We live in, so speak of love
As a pearl that delights to live
At the bottom of the ocean

Be content that the light, will one day
Split you open like a diamond
Love this Earth, with your beautiful eyes.

Treatise on the Buddha

Do not dwell in the past my friend
The future is a mere dream
Love the present moment
Be content, grateful as a wild beast
Joyous as a wild flower

Have faith in the best relationships
Three things cannot be long hidden:
the sun, the moon, the truth of your love
So love as if there is no tomorrow
Let thousands of candles be lit in your heart

For all beings deserve to be happy
Happiness never decreases by being shared
So share your life compassionately
Do not dwell in the past that is suffering
Do not year for some vain tomorrow

Love the present moment
For we are shaped by our thoughts
We become what we think, so let
Pure joy flow from your thoughts like
The light that has no shadow of itself
For not in the universe is there one like you.

Awed by your Splendor

If love hast ruled me, not hate
then shall I arise an older mate
who never loved like I do

where youth and love lie side by side
we shall stay young, in bed
and cherished happiness
If love thou hast for me, dear muse

my bride the rosy leaves
are flying to the shores
give to me, thy groom, soft sweetness
for eternity has gladness

here to pass, until the silver cord
bends lips of full kisses to thee
thy form is lovely, nearly as thy spirit
whose eyes are honeyed moisture

thick with the longing of
a lifetime without Aphrodite’s full charm
If love hast ruled me, not hate
then shall I abide with thee

Awed by thy splendorous dress
of good nature and stars near
with a bright face for me
in the roundest lights the earth can hold.

Photo Courtesy: http://www.deviantart.com/art/Golden-Autumn-400631743

The Death of Motherhood

Life contracts and death is expected
As in a season of coming Autumn
Life blossomed and love was had
As last Spring when everything changed –

When the wind stops, when the flowers
Wave their imposing colors
So temporary, like all things
Calling for pomp, begging for luxury

All to be included in the clouds
Nevertheless, life’s abundance trumps
Life expands and beginnings are necessary
As in a season, to break all seasons

The future was an ideal of beautiful proportions
Where everyone goes in their native direction.

Photo Courtesy: http://www.deviantart.com/art/44-398449586

Reunion

Bring those kisses back again
That are sealed with love for
Many a spring day, summer twilight
Bring those lips that shine of golden fruit

Bringwell, God knows we are meant
To rejoice a little, to heat up the frozen life
Of body going numb, and mind at rest
Where our bodies do join in honour and marriage

Bring, these and those kisses right here
That are sealed with garlands of love
Scents, roses, sapphires – let me comfort you
With flair, subtly, passionately – with hungry eyes

That dance the death of night so sweetly – too sweetly
Bring those kisses back again
For more, O’ my love for -evermore
Bring those lips that shine on, the holy rounds

Of health and ancient receptacles sugary
As in a vault of love, all cuddled up
For many a hundred years have I waited for thee.

Photography Courtesy: http://browse.deviantart.com/art/Wild-horses-on-the-beach-382959170

Patchwork Features of Social Interchange

Now tell me there is a pause
Of where the world bends, and we Begin –
The ferries of the best twilights
That were people, half-bloomed
.
Before they cross the river ahead
Each person brings us a symbol
Of the world, like corn and half-blown sunflowers
That dangles in the reaching out
.
That might have never been, since
The wind-burned pastures don’t always
Have much to show, a few smiling memories
That good advice that haunts us till our end
.
Now tell me there is a pause
To the affections that do not last –
What someone in their wisdom might have meant
In reference to their imperfect knowledge of us?
.
There is a strange afterlife, to lovers
And a peculiar premonition of strangers
Now tell me there is a pause
Of where we begin, and the intersection
Through the fretwork of our ghostlike biographies.

With Ourselves We Have Outdated Etiquette

I should not dare to be sad
So many the years gone by
The weight we bear is impossible
If we think we bear the most

But the truth is, it’s not us who have difficult lives
We are all dying every day
I should not dare to be so gloomy
While I encourage my friends

On different terms, we are who we are
Disappearing to ourselves
Unknowable, without friends and partners
I should not dare to be alone

With my insignificant Immortality
To withdraw is a worthless thing
Secure in our simplicity, we maintain control
I should not dare to be so unobtainable

That I never select others into my life
I must befriend the world, to begin to live.

The Breakup

And with a sudden emphasis
Of our sad geometry
Like an old flower in a tender vase
You threw me out the window!
Circumscribing our enormous debts

A lover’s never so beautiful
As when they look at you with cold eyes
As if for the last time
Kissing you on the cheek
Knowing that this will be the last time

But I must replay the excess that stops me with its dream
Love is fickle as the sea
Though it is my rite to everything
The one in me who’s lazy & distracted
And requires art & romance
To feel complete, or entertained?

Trapped by the impatience for another
As if experience could mount immortality
Into my forgotten heart
But like a pinned butterfly
Motionless and fragile
I may only beat my wings

Your child seemed surprised
I cried for him, the last look
And I have been debased
Lost to the vast circle of beautiful things

And with a sudden emphasis
The purest sigh, there was not affection

Here, waiting for me, at the other end of the room
In your eyes, only ruthlessness
Proof of a goodbye so grand
Your promises of friendship were like
The curtains you said you would tailor for me

Thing one says, when trying to be polite
To someone, you can’t be the other half of the world – for.

Being Used

I have bartered myself
With violent abandon
Suffered myself against
Pitiful impulsivity
I have given myself

To the wounded and the aloof
Only to be abused like crushed dahlias
I have held myself like a shinning ghost
For marigold-garlanded projects
Attempted healing, at my own expense

I have martyred myself
In the arms of uncaring lovers
And I am dismembered & bruised
I have sought connection
Like a fragment without a purpose

Stockpiling fruits of attraction
For something outside myself
I have been illuminated by gargoyles
Tortured by single mothers
All to be somebody’s rebound, somebody’s scapegoat
Until the wind of their lust changed direction.

Towards a Naked Soul

I collected self-pity

Distilled from common heart-breaks

The Narcissus reminder

 

That we transmit pain

With cowardly eyes

Believe me it’s not

 

Anything but my stupidity

The poetical potential to learn how to hate

From foundations of so much love

 

I collected melancholy

Like a common child of love

My thirst for ambiguity

 

A gourmet prerogative

Feeling is a the great gamble

For sensitive types like me.