there may be darkness
Every year
he says, “I love these people.
I’m going to go be with them,
just to walk them through the darkness.”
⭐️
Every year the angels tell him,
No, this is a bad idea.
It never works.
But the Eternal One nods at him and smiles
a sad little smile,
and he pours himself out
into a great mysterious emptiness,
and he comes.
⭐️
He always comes
and walks with us,
and every year I walk with him,
he smiles and nods that same smiling nod.
⭐️
There is the brief moment in the stable—
despite the hardship quite lovely, really—
but then the hard work,
the road, the town square, the disputes…
⭐️
And then he is taken.
Every year, taken:
shot beside me as we walk,
jailed, deported, lynched, crucified.
⭐️
I walk on without him,
looking for a welcome place for him,
trying to bear that light,
let it gleam just a little…
And then it gets darker,
until it seems stupid and hopeless and foolish,
and then once again,
the angels shaking their heads
but singing glory anyway,
he comes.
⭐️
Knowing, he comes,
every year he comes.
And I watch for them to take him,
and they do take him, every year,
and I say,
“The angels are right, this doesn’t work.”
⭐️
He nods and smiles and says,
“Yes it does.”
And he comes again.
And I,
a tiny light in a great emptiness,
already
I am waiting for him.
⭐️
__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
come
just as you are
rusty and dusty
a bit ragged
with that nagging cough
edges frayed and worn
a bit of dust is the stuff of life
dry bones beginning to breathe
be alert, that’s not chocolate under your fingernails…
check the room, don’t let the bedbugs bite…
but do let your out-dated arrogance go up in smoke
easily, so easily, let go your striving
remember life is but a dream within a dream
kiss me with the mouth with which you just voraciously ate rare meat –
that mouth you drank copious amounts of wine, with –
just kiss me thoroughly
let your carnal juices run and mingle with mine
don’t stop to wipe your sweat dripping onto my waiting skin
let me trust you
with my darkest secrets
and yes, please, do the same for me
let’s tell the stuff that make us squirm
let’s be completely uncomfortable together
leave the light on so I see all of your naked body
while you trace my stretch marks, I will gently kiss your souls’ scars
we’ll lay all night in pools of starlight
square in the middle of the circle of us
arms and legs intertwined
as our hearts grow entwined together
until we are paralyzed by our own beauty
I am learning everything I need to know in this world
the song of the whales as they ride the green and blue star filled waves
into the night sky of eternity
🌎
Amy Lloyd
I want to write a poem the birds will understand
and the snakes and stones
the trees with their
secrets and green faces
Let it enchant the dolphins and the whales
when they are courting in the middle of the ocean
Let it talk with the aborigine
who knows the moon’s a person in the sky
And should it be the last poem in the world
let it be among the first in worlds we’ve never
seen where it may talk to rivers
there and animals we’ve only
seen in dreams Let it walk
around in rooms where
God’s footprints have remained behind
Let it be something I’ve been unable to imagine here
There’ll be fish there I may be riding on the
back of one today
Will the poem be about the cheetahs and the wind
we only see when we’re in love?
🐳
Paul Carroll
life: acoustic & amplified 