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.

by P.H. Pearse

Naked I saw thee,
O beauty of beauty!
And I blinded my eyes
For fear I should flinch.

I heard thy music,
O sweetness of sweetness!
And I shut my ears
For fear I should fail.

I kissed thy lips,
O sweetness of sweetness!
And I hardened my heart
For fear of my ruin.

I blinded my eyes,
And my ears I shut,
I hardened my heart
And my love I quenched.

I turned my back
On the dream I had shaped,
And to this road before me
My face I turned.

I set my face
To the road here before me
To the work that I see,
To the death I shall meet.

By James Ryder Randall

The Hebrew girl, with flaming brow,
The banner-blush of shame,
Sinks at the sinless Savior’s Knees,
And dares to breathe His name.
From the full fountain of her eyes
The lava-globes are rolled—
Tears wash His feet; she spurns them off
With her ringlet-scarf of gold.

The Meek One feels the eloquence
Of agonizing prayer,
The burning tears, the suppliant face,
The penitential hair;
And when, to crown her brimming woe,
The ointment box is riven—
“Rise, daughter, rise! Much hast thou loved,
Be all thy sins forgiven!”

Dear God! The prayer of good and pure,
The canticles of light,
Enrobe Thy throne with gorgeous skies,
As incense in Thy sight;
May the shivered vase of Magdalen
Soothe many an outcast’s smart,
Teaching what fragrant pleas may spring
From out a broken heart!