Khamsin/ Lost In the Afterlife

I rise yet again
From the trappings holding me
From the coffin of the sky
My womb in the hallowed earth
Covering me with the pale light
Of the Ancients, the stars
Of the moon, the diadem
Of the heavenly vault
I rise
Having fallen, I rise
And where were you?

Left alone
In the dry soil
What bed would I need
What comfort could the ground give
With flowers now wilted
Left for dead
I was, I am
Coming into myself again
Watched over by the tender sky
My mother, conceiving again
Giving birth to me, again
As a star, an Ancestor
A descendant of the Milky Way
And who were you?

Hearing the early morning music
A caravan treading
On the shifting sands
Lonely yet crowded
Time watched them slip by
As it all slips by
These ephemeral things
My heart desired to take
And where were we?

We held hands in a moment
Already lost to us
To the temporary dunes
Playthings of the khamsin-winds
Angry, like the Gods
Giving pleasure, like the Gods
But for a fragile time
Gone again, but left
To the treasury of my memory
And where are you now?

Pale, fading
As the wash of stars
Paints the dunes
With timid color
I see the spirit of you
Appearing for the spirit of me
Only to ourselves
Are we a reality
Immortal like the Gods
Standing against time
As the living go on their way
Without us

We cannot consummate
Our vows
Nor halt the shifting dunes
From their destiny
In the tempestuous wind
The khamsin speaks to me
Like the thunder
Of my heart
Beating hard
Breathing the empty air
Over the desert
Where life is ephemeral
As twilight
And where were we then?

Free, my mind
From all of their constraints
Inhibited are they
From the fullness of my love
Clinging only to one
Their eyes could never behold
My many and generous reflections
For I have a manifold heart

One in the earth
One in the heavens
One for the sand between your toes
One for the burning plains
Where no thing grows
For want of sacred water
One for the sun, unforgiving
One for the moon, my lover in the shadows
One for every star, woven amongst the Imperishables
One for the flesh, longing
One for the voice, singing a song
For those who have gone before us
One for your thighs, open
Like sunbeams shattering over the sands
One for the Gods, all living in my veins
And how many do you have now?

I rise again
Forgetting the fall
Tasting freedom
Which is limitless experience
In the heart
Unencumbered by ephemeral conditions
These are the trappings that bind us
Here on earth
But these I have transcended
And shown the many colors
That shine from the mirror
Of my heart

Conscience, you are not bound
To this earth
Not bound to one
But married to many
Your freedom comes
After you have let go
Relinquishing the need to possess

Having fallen in you
I rise
My earth, my heaven
Reunited with them all
I have found at long last
The place where you are

I Sat Near A Stream

Fall leaves give way to Galena Creek, Reno, Nevada/ Photo by the author

I sat near a stream
To see where your love
Would take me.
The trickle of cool water
Carried me away
From the frantic heat
Of a mid day sun
Set high in the empty sky.

You flow with the clouds,
Away and beyond my grasp,
Though once I languished
In your bed
Even long after the sun
Captured the innocent sky.

Tender leaves, falling
Blue-bellied birds, calling
The pallid moon, never falling
Asleep in my waking dreams.

I sat near your coffin
Awaiting your return
To life;
Your chest to rise and fall,
The love in your voice
To call.
But the Summer sun faded
Before my very eyes,
The rising crescent moon
Smitten by midnight skies.

How short are the Winter days
You left behind,
Your hot lips a memory
I have jealously locked away.
The eager pleasure of your
Hard body,
Staying green in the field
Of my abundant memories,
Though the touch of your hands
Has faded, never again.

I sat near a stream
To see where my life would ebb,
How many breaths could I take
Beneath the water
Filling my lungs
With liquid slumber
Like a baby in my mother's womb.

Will the empty sky miss me,
The earth taste my still fair flesh?
How long will the waters flow
Without me,
Once my soul is flying high?

The Memory of Saints

Silver Island after sundown on the Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah/ Photo by the author

Thunder of prayers
Hallowed spaces, they rise
Like incense in my heart's
Recollections
To stumble in the dark garden
Pricked by leaves,
Falling, falling, falling

Fastly comes the night's veil
A bride that lights
Passions with a single blue flame
Calling, calling, calling
Pounding that rhythm
Worshiped by the Ancients

Call back the folded hands
Of wise men
Clad in cowls,
For the earth has fallen into
Inhumane industry

Do we remember the songs of saints
Who crossed the desert
Where ships sank into the
Unforgiving sands

They survived injustice
They remained compassionate
While the rest of us lost
Our innocence

But I take up the veil of stillness,
Of the heart beating
The mind like a drum

Marry, marry, marry
The two separated souls
And you will have found
The answer

Am I alone?
Am I alone in the desert?
I was, but for a moment,
King of the fallen sky
The stars inseperable
From the ocean of midnight

I will come out from the Veil
My eyes stroking the light
That takes upon itself the
Body of a man,
The mirror alone tells of
His identity

Light a candle
Light a prayer on fire
So that its warmth challenges
Greedy twilight
Silky night, you fall, fall, fall

Sunrise, I call, call, call
I take up with folded hands
The call of the past,
And my future becomes
The memory of saints

Floating Island

The flooded plains and "floating island" of the Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah/ Photo by the author

It was no sacrifice
To follow you here
To empty, burning stretches
Where the eternal sky
Meets a horizon
Married with pure and spiritual
Quality

What do our eyes see
When they are filled
With such sights?
The passage of time
Which is greater than all
Our aspirations
Floating, floating floating

A form
Cradled in the firmament's
Gentle glow
Sends out its power
To strike a claim in my heart

How can we ever go back?

Let us keep to ourselves
The Mysteries of the ancient spirits
That haunt these stretches
Of salty, barren earth

Ghosts that wander
Seeking a drop of water
Send messages still,
Though their mortal forms
Have long since vanished

Where have they gone, gone, gone

I cannot touch
But with my wandering eyes
The beautiful curve of the earth,
Where sky falls into the lusty embrace
Of scintillating terra
Will they find release?

You alone brought me
To this hidden paradise
Where one can hear the
Footsteps of the Gods
Like giants

A crash of lightning
Stings the desert sky
An oasis becoming the
Fruit of my soul,
The acrid salt in my mouth,
The stillness, utter stillness
Ringing between my ears

I cannot go back
To my youth
To my first love's consummation
To innocence
To water washing the desert
Away

But I can, with you,
Come to this,
A frozen hot moment
Where the earth marries the sky,
Untouched by the brutal passage
Of time

Return of the Sanguine Swallow

A dramatic pastel sunset over the Bonneville Salt Flats of Utah/ Photo by the author

Twilight breathes softly,
The caress of purple and rich azure blue.
Silently, I wait for you,
Beneath trees in which doves nest,
Beneath the lamp of moon's light
Dappling a path with alabaster glory.

How many times, how many lives?
The power of form and flesh alive
On my fingertips.

I will gladly wait, wait, wait
For the return of the sanguine swallow,
Whose home in lonely trees becomes
The residence of my soul.

Why wait, wait, wait
When the moon, my lover, is so
Generous, and my naked skin
Glistens with the kiss of the morning
Dew.

Everyone’s Butterfly: A Poetic Tribute to Lady Loreon Vigne

The Rt. Reverend Loreon Vigne, Arch Priestess of Isis, 1932-2014/ Photo by the author

Twilights come and nightshades fall,
The sky receives the raven’s call.
The blush of youth,
Burning in the morning’s light,
Matures as unfolds the heavy
Blanket of night.

All that ends begins again,
When morning returns
To let the light back in.

Sparkle, pulse, shine and glimmer,
Even at dusk when the lights
Grow dimmer.

The timid moth awaits her time,
With endeavor and faith she weaves.
To and fro, a home she does grow,
In damp green Earth and leaves.

A crow’s call pierces the starry night,
Beneath round face of alabaster light.
The rooster springs
When blue bird sings,
Another dawn, with life it brings.

The moth, so timid, whose colors wait to shine,
Prepares to disappear
Within the cocoon of time.

Gilded sun and silver moon,
Your lights they fade, like life,
Too soon.
But they come again, with the dawn,
Pulse and glimmer,
With fire and passion,
The colors they shimmer.

Whisper, shelter, gentle home,
She has hidden a secret
That blossoms alone.
Through nights of flaxen stars,
Days of burning color,
She transforms nature’s mettle to a form
Like no other.

Alone, inspiration grows,
But dazzles when colors reveal
What once hid a secret,
Has become open and real.

A lark on high heralds dawn’s reign,
The burst of new life
Awakens again.

Tears, sorrow and strife
Recede as the tides,
And timid cocoon bursts
With colors that fly.

Our star, our love, our golden wings flashing,
In time have risen,
Over seas and tides crashing.

Though twilights return,
And nightshades are drawn,
Always sings the triumphant sun,
Forever comes the dawn.

Lavender, purple, royal and free,
Your cocoon has revealed a secret in me!

That love is renewed
And eternal, it grows.
It sprouts its wings,
And nobody knows
When a soul shall be born
Or spring free in the sky,
For you, little moth, have become
Everyone’s butterfly.