Sacred Heart, Sacred Light
It is a measure of these times
that nothing is as it appears to be,
our lives daily trivialized by a global power structure
that has woven a dark veil of fear and deceit
over our lives, over our minds.
Truly, as never before,
the future of our humanity
lies broken and fragile before us
and there is no time left for turning away.
There is no time left for fear.
It is courage that is asked of us now.
It is the light of conscience.
Human eyes alone cannot see the interweaving harmony.
Human ears alone cannot hear its quiet song of peace.
It is our inner being that must seek the light.
Through it all, the Earth will endure
for no human folly can destroy its sacred being.
No human folly can challenge the Divine.
In the end, it is our humanity alone that can be lost,
all that we are as human beings,
all that we can be.
Over and over again,
we have met violence with violence,
and thus, violence has prevailed.
Over and over again,
we have been lied to,
and from our fear,
from our unquestioned willingness to believe,
we have listened to the lies
as if truth was somehow contained within them—
and thus, the lies have prevailed.
Over and over again,
we have cursed the darkness.
We have sought to fight against it
even as we have opened to its influence and its ways.
We have turned from the light within us,
and thus, the darkness has prevailed.
For so long now we have lived
within the hatred and the violence.
For so long we have lived within the lies,
within the veil of darkness.
It does not have to be that way.
In our innermost souls
it is beauty, it is love
that seeks to be known,
and it is truth that illumines our path.
Sacred Heart, Sacred Light
bestow Thy Grace upon us.
Open our eyes so that we might truly see
the beauty of your presence.
Open our ears so that we might truly hear
the harmony, the sacredness of truth.
Open our hearts so that the love that shines within them
might truly shine throughout our lives.
I tell you honestly,
I have not thought these words into being.
They have come from an inner stillness.
They have come on the wings of prayer.
For Larry
When I think of you now, my friend,
I do not see the frail old man.
It is the young man I knew so well
who comes to greet me.
To see you again in the grace of your youth
rests lightly in my mind.
O, and what a young man you were,
with your beguiling charm,
the soft seductiveness of your physical presence,
the thought-provoking brilliance of your conversation,
the serape and the Frye boots.
You questioned so many things I had been given,
so many things I had held so firmly in my mind,
and in that way, I too began to question,
and a whole new way of knowing
slowly began to open for me.
I am grateful for those times, my friend.
I am grateful for our friendship.
And I do not write these words
as a denial of the frail old man,
for that too we have shared,
and I cannot truly separate
the old man from the young,
from the full richness of your life.
For in the end, are we not left
with all that we have been,
with all the years we have experienced,
united within the wholeness of our being,
within the light-filled interweaving of it all.
In the end, are we not left, you and I,
within the light-filled interweaving
that once held our friendship,
within the light-filled interweaving
that holds it still.
Tracks
I almost missed them,
these smallest of bird tracks
in and out of the shadows
of the juniper bush.
I have come to love
such simple things
far deeper than I once
imagined love to be.
This gentle being,
so lightly tracing its journey
across the freshly fallen snow.
Come in Shadow, Come in Light
I.
There is a song sung by the wind
as it passes through the forest,
just before dusk,
in the soft golden light
that compels the hermit thrush to sing.
You can sense it in the soft whisper
of balsam and pine,
the rustle of leaf and fern,
their shadows gently swaying
over forest ground.
You can almost feel its breath
as if it were your own.
It is a sacred song,
a song of love, come softly
through the forest.
Come in shadow, come in light.
II.
In silence, the morning light
casts the wind across my bedroom wall,
the shadow of branches, of leaves,
…becomes pure movement,
becomes the presence of wind itself.
And it is all so familiar,
this warmth, this undeniable joy
…becomes pure movement,
becomes the presence of joy itself
in the silence, in the morning light.
III.
It is the simplest of songs
that lives within me now,
remembering how to walk the Earth
with gratitude, with love,
alive to the sacredness of all
that sustains it, alive
to the deep beauty of its grace.
It is the simplest of songs
that fills me now,
come as sustenance,
as a cool drink of water
in a land of thirst,
and so much depends upon it.
This song of grace and beauty,
so long forgotten, so long denied.
It is a song sung by the heart,
and I know now
its power lies in the singing.
IV.
All that is holy shines inwardly
with a light that illumines the darkness;
all else is but a shadow to the light,
never with the power to take from us
our true humanity,
all that weaves us together
in the warmth of its feeling,
the depth of its love.
Through all the darkness,
through all the isolation and the fear,
it waits quietly for us to open to it.
It waits for us to shine.
Listen to a related poem with music from Jim Johnston here on YouTube:
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image: Efraimstochter
