Next Life
There are among us luminous beings who maintain that what we might taste of the Garden of Paradise and what we might suffer of…
From a particular height
a stone bird is sought
From another altitude
silk rain’s beseeched
From yet another more daring
God’s outline in the dark
His perspective from a peak
over all the world
The heart like a pinnacle
scaled in a blink
blind the outer eye
the inner eye opened
The journey entailing
a wholehearted silence
the iciness warmed
by the charge of our blood
We come back with nothing
and no words to say it
more precious than all the
things we can name
all radiance captured
in uncapturable space
the subtlest lineaments
of His indescribable Face
A door opened quietly
the whole room dissolved
The house dark at last
and everyone sleeping
The whisper that lights up
the five known worlds
This and the next
and the three realms between
Mulk Malakut Jabarut
at the tips of our heartbeats
vision soft as a feather
enfolding the moon
We sit very still
and it all comes inside us
The altitudes turned
into generous gestures
Open hand for the horses
to nibble sugar in bliss
in the barn where the owl sits
as darkness comes down
Take from the silence
what words you can
Add your silence and they rise
to their proper dimensions
From a particular height
where a stone bird is sought
from another altitude
where silk rain’s beseeched
and from another more daring
God’s outline in the dark
His perspective from a peak
over all the worlds
12/30/13 (from Next Life)
Categories: Poems