Awapoems

12/13/20

Metal

Shadows of great metal walls have got me stuck in the maze. 
I look in the east and see warm mountains, where does that light come from? 
How did I wander into rain and fog and cold? 
I remember a day when I looked out from a high hill in the morning, 
Thirsting for water, my bones and muscles and senses broken, I stood there.
Then I sang from my heart “come, Spirit, come” and my heart became the living sun. 
There came to me a great knowledge then, saying, “Look for Me always.
When you go down into the valley do not forget but feel Me there always,
And I will raise you up.” So I put on my torn, soaked coverings and went among the people.
For many months I carried a blessed memory, my heart on fire,
Saying, “Peace up here with Me, and peace down here for Us.”
Everywhere I went, in everyone I passed, my father and mother smiled at me,
I saw my brother and sister and cousin. Inside my chest a sacred flame:
On every busy street and trail, one candle lights a thousand candles. 
But now in my hunger, the coldest month still before me, I ask
And wonder and cry, “Where did I come from, which way is correct?”
Where is the one Mind that touched me and brightened up the sky? 

Water

The Lord has heard my prayers, my fears and worry rise like smoke, He heard — 
And bids me walk on, down to the water, daylight thinking on the clouds.
I have a mother on this earth, her name is Mar; a long month ends, I seek her,
The moving, turning, quiet glass.

I am an old man, along the river my little things I take; at the end I lay myself down right where I began.
From me my sorrow empties out, into the sound of her swaying.
In the silence, she shows me the new man.
His eyes reopen, he is filled with love, the mother shares a gentle word: this is what it means for tears to overflow.