earth, sky, divinities, mortals

 Language, water ice

over broken tree across 

hidden brook, winter

finally hearing “a”

I am not a body

I am free

For I am still as God

Created me

(lesson 212 from Course in Miracles)

To be free and still —

As God is creating ‘me’

All this, soul not sole 

friendship and forgiveness

 As teaching prison 

fellow invited to forge

new pedagogy

dooms of love

 My father’s whiskey

and camel cigarettes — two

suits leaning from bar

no success

 I tried zen once, it

was a saturday, a bell 

sounded, nothing else

where wise men unfear to tread

These politicians

 I’d like to think they mean well

That they really care

More for people than money

More like egoless naïveté

plowing up hill

 Inmate is corralled

Brought in from open range, not

Yet broken, not free

arises singular gust over rooftop

 Help me say something

Becoming reflective sound 

Capable of love

Knowing no fear no stutter

Just smooth silence through snowfall

invitatory

 Mind is open place

Where all flows through absent time

Thinking itself here

Have you seen all of my works?

Come enter into my rest

night chant

Rain, sleet, and snow fall

into Friday overnight —

Pray for departed

all who have disappeared, gone

to where we wonder we’ll go

sprache spricht (language speaks) what you are, saying

You must not speak hate

It would require killing

What love gives birth to —

Life, consciousness, and presence —

Why don’t you see this?

an afterthought

 go home

it's late

no

i'm staying

you can't

I can

(this is why

we have

ending

pars-

parens-

theses)

thinking of presence as incarceration or embodiment

 friends in prison say

they are "doing time." I think

time is being-here.

It extends, expands, until

fully present -- done and gone

“friend” (ahab)

Friendship, my deceased friend used to say, is rare and misunderstood.

Understand?

Indeed, Jesus instructed his friends to pray to “Abba” (as we can assume he himself prayed), a term most often rendered as “Father” in English, but one that contains shades of meaning denoting intimacy and familiarity, including that of fraternal relations like “brother” or “companion,” and is related to the Hebrew word for “friend” (ahab), used to describe Abraham. 

Thus, Jesus introduces his friends (the disciples) to his other friend (God) in the daily prayer known as the “Our Father,” perhaps the spirit of which is better captured by “Our Father-Friend” or just “Our Friend.” This idea of “Our Friend in heaven” was a revolutionary one, as Jesus, acting as a mediator of divine companionship, collapsed the sacred distance between God and us. . . .

(—Diana Butler Bass, Freeing Jesus: Rediscovering Jesus as Friend, Teacher, Savior, Lord, Way, and Presence (New York: HarperOne, 2021), 3–4, 14. CAC )

We call out, aloud or in mental imploration, for one another. 

Friendship is the mother/father of human longing.

We need companioning presence.

The simple fact of appreciatory acknowledgement, a verbal or silent mit-sein (to be-with); an inner longing to be-there.

Our existence, our human need, beholding rather than believing.

Eh, amigo?

unhand me you cad

 Secrets hide

Truth

Unveils

If you

Must keep

Secrets

Do not

Deludedly think

You preserve 

Only truth

Safeguards by

Letting go

reflection

Once we called Jesus the Son of God.

Now we look at him and see ourselves.

“Who are we?” we ask.

“And what are we being asked to sacrifice?”

Once we called ourselves unseen and unknown.

Looking around, no one is following

have you heard the one about vanishing time

 continue well

transform well

be seasonal

live well

die well

change & grow

impermanence

selflessly sees through

clear mind

it's not either/or

Thich Nhat Hānh is not 

Jesus -- but both are Christ -- both 

true Bodhisattvas

after the big blowing nor'easter

 we're going nowhere

snowplow guy hasn't showed yet

no change, staid, fixed, here

sicut erat in principio

 It’s a long journey

From hearing words to being

word — which is silence 

Itself — a doxology 

Interior with oneself

go ahead, spell it out

Big-

ots 

And

Rac-

ists 

Are ju-

st

Ord-

inary

Fo-

lk

Who

Ha-

te

Ot-

her

Col-

ors

(Esp-

ecia-

lly 

Bl-

ack),

Je-

ws

And

Tho-

se

Im-

mig-

rants 

Fr-

om

Aw-

ay

(Bl-

ess

Th-

eir

He-

arts)

And

Ho-

pe

To

Di-

e