The distance between us
Is holy ground
To be traversed feet bare
Hands raised in a joyous dance,
So that once it is crossed
The tracks of our pilgrimage
Shine in the darkness
And light our comming together
In a bright and steady light.

~Raphael Jesus Gonzalez~

Lynx
The truly wise person
kneels at the feet of all creatures
and is not afraid to endure
the mockery of others.

~Mechtild of Magdeburg~

Mother of the World

Mother of the world rises footless
from the folds and valleys
of eternity born herself
of the elements
one with the stuff
of the universe
dressed in the stuff
of the earth

She carries the earth
she cradles the earth
morbid with the
failings of humans

She nurtures the earth
she covers the earth
with time and peace and wisdom.

~Unknown to me~

All people are children when they sleep.
There's no war in them then.
They open their hands and breathe
in that quiet rhythm heaven has given them.

They pucker their lips like small children
and open their hands halfway,
soldiers and statesmen, servants and masters.
The stars stand guard
and a haze veils the sky,
a few hours when no one will do anybody harm.

If only we could speak to one another then
when our hearts are half-open flowers.
Words like golden bees
would drift in.
- God, teach me the language of sleep.

Rolf Jacobsen
translation by Robert Hedin

One day you finally knew
what you had to do, and began,
though the voices around you
kept shouting
their bad advice--
though the whole house
began to tremble
and you felt the old tug
at your ankles.
"Mend my life!"
each voice cried.
But you didn't stop.
You knew what you had to do,
though the wind pried
with its stiff fingers
at the very foundations,
though their melancholy
was terrible.
It was already late
enough, and a wild night,
and the road full of fallen
branches and stones.
But little by little,
as you left their voices behind,
the stars began to burn
through the sheets of clouds,
and there was a new voice
which you slowly
recognized as your own,
that kept you company
as you strode deeper and deeper
into the world,
determined to do
the only thing you could do--
determined to save
the only life you could save.

- Mary Oliver -