Lenten Triptych

Grateful

For being old enough to know
you have, at the same time,
some clarity,

and enough awareness to
know you don't have enough
time left for foolishness.

Grateful for the burn of frost-
bitten hands under warm
water, and the gift of feeling grateful.

For the gentle curve of the Universe,
as your Spirit is crushed
in its turning.

For the license to opt out
and the courage to check in
and the balance to stand.

And every Holy moment in which
it is given to kiss the Leper and tell
and tell and tell the glory

and the delight of being here.

 

My Peculiar Pilgrimage

The price you pay only becomes clear
when your body is no longer able to pay it.

Was Captain Ahab's death tragic
or merely pathetic?

I have neglected to prepare the soil for certain flowers,
and yet, they bloom with every step taken.

Yes! I am grateful for the road created in my walking
and the gracefully revealed space to recognize it.

I have been so gloriously and wondrously lost.

 

February

Playing in the piano bar
of your immensity one spring,
I heard the honest music.

That night my fingers moved
with the tinkling delicacy of spiderwebs
while the ice was breaking on Seneca Lake.

If a fish were to become aware of water,
would its shimmering body contain the tear?
What crimes would I commit to reveal the depths of this love?

I have witnessed snowflakes
falling in the light
of a Brooklyn streetlamp.