Sunday, October 25, 2009

Callista

Callista, goodbye,
Keep open your eyes,
Your future is finally here
It's not what you will but it's still
And it's yours and it's clear
In some other season
Had we governed reason
Our hands and our faces would meet
And the seas you water
Would dry up, my daughter,
The seas never touching our feet.

Most beautiful friend,
The time is the end,
And time has no meaning no more
The forges of fury
Are beating the plowshares to swords
The world has gone wrong
And you know you belong
To an unrevealed age of life
Let bad fall to ruin
And yield to the human,
A new birth of spirit from strife.

The stories they tell
Of heaven and hell
Will diminish and cease to be true
A little revenge on the gods
Who dared wrestle with you
They, the conceited,
They, who deceited,
Could never set you in the stars
Who love themselves only
They deserve to be lonely
And sightless and frozen and far.

But your vindication
Brings no consolation
The beauty you found they have missed
Your flag is unfurled at the top of a world
That does and does not yet exist
Callista, you're turning
Your God, she is yearning
The two of you one and apart
I hear you cry softly
How moving, how costly
To follow the prize of your heart.

O virgin, O mother,
We sing for each other
We watch across infinite space
A harmony passes -- it whispers
In silvery quavers of grace
Much more I would give you
If I could be with you
To ease, to lighten, to share
Your burden, O maiden,
So heavily laden,
That you and you alone must bear.

Callista, goodbye,
Keep open your eyes,
Your future is finally here
It's not what you will but it's still
And it's yours and it's clear
In some other season
Had we governed reason
Our hands and our faces would meet
And the seas you water
Would dry up, my daughter,
The seas never touching our feet.

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

New Moon

I saw the new moon--
Could sense its slivery silvery self--
Didn't need the sun to light it....
I'm de-lighted
Deeply, watching, shivering;
Sometimes it hides,
But it is!
And it is today--
Hiding!
I will go rising and hiding, too,
Where it is spacey and anechoic.
Room, room--I will find a vacuum!

Does it make you mad that no one sings of you?
Does it make you sad that no one paints your face?
Are you not the font of sight and sound?

Those who play, they say
The impossibility of silence is the future of music.
I'll add if I may,
The impossibility of darkness is the future of light.

Na na na, hey hey hey,
See how I play?

Moonfall, fall away.
Echoes in shadows betray the day.

You are the new moon
Dear missing one
Flying between me and the sun....
Go on, be gone
With your coy decoys--
I can lie low like you
Or do nothing as you do--
I shall lie high!
You can't see me resigning
Sore and nameless
(O honest silence, O!);
You'll never see me crying.

And though you pull and push and pull,
I'm not bound to the earth
I'll take to the air
And kiss you
Thievishly, feverishly
There.

Good night, new moon.
You will see me soon.

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Night Prayer

Creator and muse
Of my fractured longing,
And inaudible harmony
Of this brittle song,

Mine is the heart you will miss
If you hear when I sigh like this

The more that I speak of your name
The more you ought to be ashamed
That heedless of your call
That after all
The echoes sink into the abyss
You aren't who the saints proclaim
But after all
Anonymous

Appear! Appear!
I need you out here
Sit in the shadows I cast
As I vegetate in some invisible light,

Senseless, poor,
Plugged up and disconnected,
Neither awake nor asleep

Maybe there is nothing I can do
You have crawled into a fish

I wish that you were not
So far away inside of me.

Oh, but for you,
Whatever you wish,
Let it be.

Monday, October 12, 2009

Momentary Prayers

Great day for a ride through Vermont
going to the office.
Life is so good. Seriously. No more studying for a while. Yay!
overwhelmed with the kindness and generosity!
Border Deaths Are Increasing
Go Sox!
purposely avoiding the news today after yesterday’s loss.

please sign and send to your friends
For my Detroit friends ...
happy Canadian Thanksgiving!
It is National Coming Out Day and I pledge to have heartfelt conversations for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender equality.
Enjoy a day off watching men throw around pigskin with the hubby....

looking for Halloween horror? you may have never heard of The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, which i myself just learned of recently. i mean, why would we know about it ... it's only 2 times the size of Texas.

The only thing that makes the Sox losing not ruin my day is the sight of my husband putting a crib together. Five more weeks til our little darling makes a debut!
four weeks from my due date and wondering whether they will go fast or slow.
Maybe it’s time to turn on the heat?

the social net is a matriarchy
marching with the Red Bandana Brigade
hoping Rebecca has a good race, that the DC makes a big difference, and that David and Neil enjoy their wedding!
hipster dad drinking a sparks at the tot lot.
1, 2, Freddy’s coming for You!

having a much needed day to herself
busy turning his life into a story and his stories into a life

We are hoping/trying to recruit some of these leftist marching musicians for Immigration Reform Rallies and Vigils.
Marching band performed on the Red Line tonight on my way to Cambridge
reminded of why she hates taking the T on Friday nights
getting married ... TODAY!!!!!
Reconsider
Columbus Day

I just ran into John Porcell in Davis Sq.
He and his girlfriend just moved to town, funny world.
Willa and I went apple picking at Honey-Pot Farm in Stow (with Loren, Linda, Maya, and Clay).
On the way out we stopped in Maynard to visit Sue.
Okay, Nashville, I still need to find a job.
Anyone know of any openings?
Beautiful Zimbabwe, beautiful Zimbabwe.
We shall never forget you, beautiful Zimbabwe!

"Hope is the thing with feathers, that perches in the soul"
"What oxygen is to the lungs, such is hope to the meaning of life"

never been so happy to be at home eating leftovers and doing homework in my pajamas.

cannot believe how cute
her new portable, external hard drive is
not impressed.

a man of means by no means
is looking forward to seeing "Death of a Salesman" and having a nice dinner!
is angry about unnecessary layoffs
is ready to ask the "right" question to the Governor
is insulating the basement – mmmhh ... fiberglass
is enjoying the birthday wishes! Thanks! Slowly mending from this virus, but mostly shaking my head at the display of such cynicism already in our media from Obama being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
picked up a van load of donated food from Whole Foods and brought it to the food pantry.
Accomplished 3 loads of laundry and pretty-clean downstairs (including noodging the kid to clean up his stuff), mostly on one foot. Now, I must eat a small village.
missed my flight. Stuck in Dulles hell.

In the midst of a rather Job-like period, hoping that all that optimistic attitude that usually keeps me going won't run out.
Dear God
forgive me.
I'm wearing socks with flip flops.
How low can I sink....
doctor says it's not the swine flu but a throat virus that's going around with a fever and cough, fun, fun, fun, mandated bed rest for a few days because i'm contagious! ugh, i hate being sick!
My mother is still in the hospital.

Life has returned to some sense of normalcy.
Meow, meow. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Love is patient, love is kind, love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on its own way, it is not irritable or resentful, it does not rejoice in wrongdoing but rejoices in the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.
How long can I keep this shit up?

so tired....


Enjoyed my very, very cold ride.

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Everybody Loves You

She asked me "Where you goin'?"
I said "I'm goin' crazy"
Her I'd think of followin'
If I weren't so lazy

Remember your last birthday
I called from far away
It wasn't like last Thursday
It felt just like the first day

The moment when all of the stars started shining for you
Like time was just beginning
That's why I'm a-singin'
Everybody loves you
Earth and sea and heaven, too.

You know where you can find me
Look for the feet of sheep
Your garden's gifts bring kindly
Together we will sleep.

You're beautiful and pleasing
A palm among the trees....

... I'm sick of writing, teasing
The time is ripe for seizing!

I just can't wait anymore for your face to appear
You can't be here in spirit
Your voice, I need to hear it
Everybody loves you
Isn't mine the love most dear?

Baby, I'm a rich man
And that's the problem here
No one can love like you can
But your love is too severe

You say we're good for nothing
Why do you talk so rough?
I'd give you anything or something
You only want the one thing

The one thing that I haven't got, what I never will be
You say it's an obsession
And damn all my possessions
Everybody loves you
Don't you wish it could be me?

I'm thirsty for your water
My salty tears don't fill me
The breakers make me totter
Lift me up to where it's hilly

I'm mortally afflicted
Goin' down into the pit
In silence lie convicted
And from your heart evicted

Remember those times when I headed the line to see you
I thought you wanted praising
My hands to you I'm raising
Everybody loves you
Won't you let me love you, too?

You know I never see you
That's just the way it is
But, oh, I still believe you
I'm confident of this

As gentle as a mother,
And, fatherly, as tough
We must love one another
And put all fear to smother

I'm done with death from below -- give me life from above
Forgive me my complaining
I'm thinking of remaining
Everybody loves you
And, yeah, 'cause you are love.

Saturday, October 3, 2009

To Francis, to Clare

Dear brother, show one how you loved the Son
In her. You knew the Lord gave her to you,
Who left all hopes and homes and callings, too,
Because you loved your Father found above
The earthly frays of fate. What curious ways
The Lord saw fit to fan your living blaze!
It has been said you walked with her and wed.
How did you long, or read the Song of Songs?
How did you build the place where she belonged?
You were the bridegroom just as much the bride,
No, twice the groom; God's love of her the fair
Joined her to you and, in you, Christ in there.

Dear sister, show us how the love of Jesus
Espoused you, mind and heart, to him, the blind
And barefoot troubadour. You left behind
The love of mortal men for something more
Eternal--fertile, like an endless year
Of spring. Was that the love that made you hear
The word your Lord sang through the clown ignored?
Insane, they brayed, because you dearly prayed
To be a beggar's bride. Then, to have paid
With golden hair the dowry! Sister Clare,
You stole your body in the name of God;
Now teach us all to love like thieving Francis,
Your brother, father, son, and willing clod.

May 30, 2003