Mrs. Daniel

I write a song of days to come,
For Mrs. Daniel,

Whose beauty is dawn
And dusk--unmistakable;
Gentle, yet profound.

Forgive me if it's not for me to say;
A smile, seen like the sun, is not a secret,
And her man would not conceal
His gift from God from anyone.
Amen, in fading light I write a song
For Mrs. Daniel, the gracious one,
Protector from the sea.

She speaks to me the sound of settling skies.
Her eyes uplift the day in which I'm dreaming.
Watch her radiate the glow of eager motherhood
Across a humdrum home. Call her Mrs. Daniel,
Lady of ten thousand lakes, a garden, and a church,
A sister to her sisters, and to a city strafed by sin.
She sings a crystal tear of happiness,
She whispers, with her flute, echoes of the new creation,
Woven with the broken bow and splintered spear.
She does not fear the enemy within,
Or the furious circling nations.
Only say, "Be still,"
And then she trembles.
Whitened wonderer walks with hope
And an advent heart of merciful innocence
Past the siren sadness ... and her name is Mrs. Daniel.

June 8, 2003

Parable

She rubbed her tummy like it was a talisman
And she had become a fuzzy monster grape giantess
Pointing to her fruit, her fruit

Everybody wants to pick the grapes
Sweating under the low-hanging moon.

She rubbed her eyes and held her head down
And though she kept her mouth shut,
Before she knew it, she set everybody on fire

And she made sounds you couldn't understand
And they all grabbed her pink and scaly wrist
And they all wanted to slay the snap-dragon
With a gut full of currants

It's no fun picking raisins
Drying in the sun
Flaming from a pool.

I found them guarding the giantess
And sneering at the snap-dragon
Who was already dead.
They were standing on an overgrown hillside
Their feet were tangled in trampled vines.

Whose the sweetness? Whose the greening power?
Woe to those whose loving-kindness lasts but an hour.

An Annunciation

I am your hello
You are my hi
We are overshadowed by the spirit

The earth is your shape and its secrets your fashion
The fire is your hair
The water is your liquid face
The air is in your silence

The word is your body
Space is the width of your smile, light its brightness and darkness
Time is the curve of your lips
Heat is the flicker of your tongue over mine

The sun is your heart
The moon is your soul
The stars are your eyes

We are the galaxy
We are the journey
We are the destination, ours is destiny

Art is your speech, teaching me to see
Music is your sigh, high and soft
Science is your intuition
Beauty is our every act of defiance

Psychology is your impulse
Health is the ring of your laughter
Hope is waiting with you
Home is our faith
Eternity is our perfect embrace

Fear is what you took away from me
Death is a stranger you disarmed with kindness
Night is the thrill of hearing our names over mingled breath
Day is what remains after the night explodes

The past is our invention
The present is our inspiration
The future is our creation
Love is our imagination

The question is irrelevant
The answer is Yes.