A Part of the Universe

Every night I pull out the blank book
and I sketch on it each line of your face

I can never get it quite right
and it is paradise
to mull over every curve, lips, brow, cheek,

neck

nothing straight or fixed

You're made of small sections of planetary orbits
that my finger traces through the night sky

Because of you I am a part of the universe
and we intersect with each curve
witnessing the awesome.

My God...My God...
Oh!

In a Circle

I sit in a circle of fathers of all ages,
my grandfathers and theirs appear above.

This always is.

Bring me your wind-up toy my son and I
will wind it for you over and over and over,
the two of us, until you say, "no, no, no" and
wave "all done!"

The Grandfathers laughing with joy.

My eyes well up. Water from the deepest source,
I tap in, drunk, pulled to the bottom, home, the one
I am afraid of for fear of ending, and I do, I will, for you.

Come to me with your empty cup, I know from where to
fill it, we aren't far.

You bring a little puzzle with three simple pieces. The same one
over and over and over and I'll sit with you and replay
the same movements until it all fits
and you get it how it is,
how the picture was complete all along and we just didn't know it,
until we do.

Then bring it again to me, all apart, acting like we don't know how
to fit it all together when we do,

Do this with me until one day we are the Grandfathers fathers inviting
the Grandmothers
mothers looking from the ether onto our Grand Children's children
winding up
their toys and working on their puzzles.

Nothing Else To Do

Nothing is okay.
Nothing is okay.

I raise my hands in to
the sky to catch rain
to drink

I pound the earth with
my hands to make a
hole to put my tears

and I burn all traces of
my dreams until they
are transformed

and

new spaces are made
in me so I can
hold you

and hold you
and hold you

and there is nothing else
to do but love.

(for Max and Amanda- Love David, Sami and Zion)

No Stone Goes Unturned

I watch
and I know it isn't only watching.

You bloom each day;

Petals unfolding their blossom, their sweetness
like my son opening his morning eyes,
like my beloved giving up each moment.

To what do I owe such grace?

Shankars musical mantras drone ancient tones,
drowning out my modern mind and
I listen
yet I know it isn't merely listening.

You speak to me each day;

Thunder shaking the tree to the root
like my sons new tongue finding its will to shake people in his life,
like my beloved needs to love me to the bone.

When my heart is a stone with
You no stone goes unturned.

Turn me until I am worn to dust,
cleaving to the roots of another effortlessly
the source from which all petals unfold to another
generation.

The Symphony

Here
is a symphony.

Drag my bow across your hollow body
and weep out each note like one letter

of one word
dripping
from my tongue

to your ear.

Find your instrument
I'll grab mine
and let's play together.

It's in the air

Listen for each letter coming

and allow yourself the invitation

On Leadership

Man is not a leader until he is the place people want to go.

Into a World

One cannot be brought into a world in which they refuse to go.

Zion in on Everything

I want in on Everything I want in on Everything I want in on Everything

Or I cry
and cry
and cry
that I am apart.

Oh, Let me in on Everything

Or a thousand ways we'll suffer...
you'll see

I'll learn to find every button you have and mash it
until I am in on Everything

I'll learn to give up, or go away or hide and be alone or succumb to
niceness, anger or begging
all to be punishing...of you
or myself.

That's just the way it goes.

Oh, Let me in on Everything

and surrender
with me.