Accepting, silencing, quieting brokenness,
Rise and walk,
Clearing a space, allowing grace,
The bridegroom away,
Getting out of the way,
An inner-chamber creating pace,
Permanent patches, shrunken cloth in a new garment,
Avoiding tattering and being torn,
Cleansing tears,
New wine in new wineskins,
Counting authenticity one moment at a time,
Passing through mind, body, and spirit,
Prayerfully learning, discernment a gift,
Touch and taste the Presence,
Breathing, being, peace, infinitesimal, immense,
Doing nothing, not even non-doing,
Releasing while increasing,
Receiving while giving away,
Practice makes perfect,
Fortitude makes strong,
Patience endures,
Temperance tempers,
Understanding relieves blindness,
Virtues blossom, a flower bouquet,
Life long, eternity even longer,
Subtle, forming, painful, difficult,
God’s love carries along,
Unsure drifting in the wind,
Carefree inner-tubing down a river,
Actuality alone, together in love,
Words sprinkle like rain,
Images replace, concepts erased,
A Baroque Cathedral splendidly enduring,
A discreet petite efficacy,
An inner-city efficiency,
Phantasmagorias,
Parables,
A cross within a circle,
A Sacred Heart,
An Immaculate Heart,
A heart one’s own,
Many hearts coalescing,
The sound and the roar,
Metamorphoses,
Let’s begin again,
Unknowing,
Trusting underneath the weight of the world,
Trusting within all the longing and imperfection,
Trusting the Emptiness.

O Holy Virgin
Keep my heart as that of a child,
Pure, fresh, and wide and glad,
Transparent as a spring.
Give me a simple heart,
That does not savor sadness,
A Heart that glories when it gives itself,
A heart aware of frailty
And open to compassion,
A faithful and generous heart
That remembers every benefit
And does not cherish rancor for a hurt.
Give me a tender, humble heart,
That loves and ask for no return,
Happy to efface itself in another heart,
In the presence of your Divine son,
A heart great and indomitable,
That no ingratitude can lock,
And no indifference render slack,
A heart tormented with the glory of Jesus Christ,
And wounded by His love,
A wound that only shall be healed in Heaven.

Pere Leone de Grandmaison

Bringing on the subtle laziness of detachment,
Everything becomes less scary,
The sun, the moon and the stars,
Immensity beyond individuality, a creature amidst creation,
It so easy when you are no longer a child being a child,
The reflections of a past forgotten on into that which can never be forgotten,
The hurt and the wounds healed amidst recovery and reception,
Walking tall leads to sitting still, why the need to move?
The appropriateness of a cool breeze and a bright-eyed aggressive cat observing longingly,
Separation lovingly, released alone on into waywardness,
All of this and heaven too,
Which ‘way’ was calling when there were so many shouts and screaming,
Declaring and announcing, arguing and debating, fighting and pretending,
Everything is quieter under the intense stare of eternity,
It’s no wonder no one gets out of here alive,
Let alone sane and stable, sound and vision perceiving precisely,
Smashed into a colorful nonbeing of sensual suspension, the powerlessness of losing a life,
See the center expanding in all directions without seeing, a point bursting forward amidst many,
Tendencies exploding, dispositions dispensing, practice and peace guiding, only three remain,
Anger, thrashing, vice and sinfulness weighing heavily, a moth on into a flame,
Moment by moment the vibrations encircle one another advancing before dispersing,
On into nothingness and not knowing another begins,
An end leads to a beginning, a beginning follows an end,
A Savior resurrected, assumed to the right hand,
Who can bring a weeping angel into the equation?
It takes an outside force to bring about cessation,
A providing mother gracing preparation and presentation,
Mathematically figuring not the force of the Paraclete,
Infusion and grace, non-effort imprinting, dragged through a wilderness of quietness,
Assuming the bigger better things are best not to presume,
Many uncertain smiles and apprehension muddled within faith, hope, and charity,
A Paris café and music dancing, trying to find adventure,
The sky blue with clouds meandering filled with blasts of chirping,
Tango sounding from the ghetto, three stepping on without worldly intention,
You were so wise when you were young and confused,
Now blissfully dumb it’s easy to scratch the scars from your face,
Healing on into emptiness, tears erase.

False hope laid upon good intentions,
Turning whirling windchimes sounding precarious,
Few are able to change,
Fewer still undergo metamorphosis,
A butterfly springing to life,
A call of the wild strumming the strings of a harp,
Harmonious engagement amidst solitary depravement,
Commitments carrying on in a way,
Leave me in silence,
Leave me in peace,
Alone in prayer together we part,
Temporal together we hold the eternal hand,
Breathing and steady,
Patient allowing God’s sublime command,
The whispering breath of love on capable levels,
Sidestepping hierarchy,
Assuaging to the need to declare wisdom,
Accepting a life within imperfection,
One tries on into the end,
Being alive,
Ever the prey to the hound of heaven.