Somewhere I have never traveled,gladly beyond
Any experience, your eyes have their silence:
In your most frail gesture are things which enclose me,
Or which I cannot touch because they are to near

Your slightest look easily will unclose me
Though I have closed myself as fingers,
You open always petal by petal myself as Spring opens
(touching skillfully, mysteriously) her first rose

Or if your wish be to close me,I and
My life will shut very beautifully,suddenly,
As when the heart of this flower imagines
The snow carefully everywhere descending;

Nothing which we are to perceive in this world equals
The power of your intense fragility:whose texture
Compels me with the color of its countries,
Rendering death and forever with each breathing

(I do not know what it is about you that closes
And opens;only something in me understands
The voice of your eyes is deeper than all roses)
Nobody,not even the rain,has such small hands

On the precipise of the abyss, I am standing.
My attuned fingers know a way,
know a location not quite so close to the edge,
more in the middle, an essenced center of knowing;
it's better than chocolate-
and then my soul reaches in,
ethereal fingers pulling open this lotus
petal by pleasured petal, until
many reflections of hands guide through the seeds of grief and oh so gently stroke where there is no need for feeling, there is only the opening
only the absence of absence.
On the precipise of the abyss
I am looking, i am looking around
for someone to dance with, until i remember she's right here being distracted from dancing by looking around. These feet know a wave to catch, a ride right next to the edge, an eyes closed, hips-spiraling, arms-aloft room with a view and a dance floor
stretching in solidness across the void
where movement is required, yes breath is inevitable
and choice instrumental for me and my community
so we leaptwirltoeflip boom chic a boom, boom
boom chic a jump towards the abyss
from this nexus precipise.
Ravens are calling, falling becomes flying
flailing feet become hands become feet
in the liberation of tumbling
head becomes heart. sex becomes salvation
we become us. you become me. he becomes she
All one, Beloved comes
in bursts of light from beyond the clouds i am careening through. This mysterious emptiness
is alive with a storm, and the Eyes look up just in time
to let me see the dark center i am so terrified
to pass into
and just before i do i realize i'm laughing
and just afterwards i feel the Wind lifting from underneath
and whispering this, trust, this, forgive this, reveal this, listen to this and acknowledge the darkness, singing: Unfold your wings and fly, unfold your wings and fly away.

isn't it plain the sheets of moss, except that
they have no tongues, could lecture
all day if they wanted, about spiritual patience?

isn't it clear the black oaks along the path are standing
as though they were the most fragile flowers?

Every morning i walk like this around the pond, thinking
if the doors of my heart ever close, i am as good as dead.

Every morning, so far, i'm alive.
And now the crows brak off from the rest of the darkness and burst up into the sky.

as though all night they had thought
of what they would like their lives to be,
and imagined their strong, black wings.

O my Shadow, embrace me!

Hold me in your opalescent arms.

Allow me the nectar of your bitter medicine so the taste may linger on my lips

while I learn to hunger for your lessons.

O shadow, nurture me through the suffering of confronting you,

so I may be relieved of the deeper pain of resisting you.

Shadow, show me your dance and behold my blood, sweat and tears as I learn the steps,

and humbly thank you for meeting me in this place of movement,

rather than in the place of stagnation.

Scream a cacophony of repitious viscious cycles in my ear

so I may release these patterns and know a more peaceful inner sweet sighing.

Shadow, show me your woes so I may kiss each one on the forehead and say

"I see you", "I know you", "Yes", "Forgiven".

Visit me with fractured and distorted visions, so I may will them into clear focus.

Pummel me with doubt and insecurity, Shadow, so I can kindly smile

as each blow transforms

into rhythms of confidence and grace.

O Shadow, bring me face to face with the slimy muck of my darkest purging,

so I may gaze at the puddle lovingly and appreciate the beauty of beholding

all parts of myself, without judgement.

Shadow, kick my ass when I'm lazy-

rattle my essence when I'm absent minded-

knock me to my senses when I've gone numb.

O Shadow, devour me with teeth of rage, jealousy, abandonment, deceit

so I may be spit out and once again choose to blossom my heart more,

opening myself to you, again

and again.