The Perfect Moon-Faced One

The perfect moon-faced one appears
with perfect lips and bow-like eyebrows.

His hair is braided behind his ears
and this pure appearance of his arouses

our trust that unity will thrive
and we’ll be taken to One Presence

now that we find ourselves alive
in this world that is far less dense

than that of actions was before
when one thing made another happen —

here we find an open door
that there was only rarely open.

Praising, Praise, Praiseworthy, comes
hands raised at his sides, exalting,

takes us by our hearts and runs
through the various stations vaulting

past the barriers raised inside,
lusts and greed and deep reluctance,

knocks them with a touch aside,
keeps our steps firm with insistence,

leads us up no stairs to no height
but the one raised elevation

past the deepest realms of insight
to the Next World’s happy station

face to face, our moon-faced one,
faces us past all formation,

praising that One with no space, sun
moon or stars, but all creation

gone in flashes no light shines on
to the last, uncluttered, single,

breath-stopped, stable, unique vision
in which all our gazes mingle

steady now, unchanging, direct
slow and slower eyesight finished,

just a mirror set to reflect
all the states, enlarged, diminished —

one breath streaming out past life
into worlds no eyes have seen.

There we find ourselves, no strife,
but one gaze that is evergreen

light upon a top-most tip
eye to eye, the “I” now gone —

emptiness, heart’s deepest sip,
one gaze gazes on and on.

(from Sparrow on the Prophet’s Tomb)

More Poems