Revival

Forget about goodbye
we will always love each other

even if it is silently
and the soft touch of
our skin and lips,
the brightness of our lit hearts
has been quietly hushed

except for
in
the sweet elixir
of memory

We made our way
out onto the water
caught like light
on a passing afternoon
the fluid movement of
our love, an answered prayer
your face, your words,
your touch
enraptured
dead places in me

Our bodies may never again
know one another

but this is not the end

you cannot stop the force
of what
has been revived

the key has been turned,
the engine ignited

the bird has found her voice
and sings for hours in a canopy
of dark maple leaves

the sunlight entices
the fern to unfold her green tendrils

You,
my love,
will always be the one
who helped call me back
to taste the warm wine
of a life awake

I ravenously drank
and now live more vivaciously,
my heart now soaked with passion
my soul drunk with joy

Untitled

By: Rumi

The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you.
Don't go back to sleep.

You must ask for what you really want.
Don't go back to sleep.

People are going back and forth across the doorsill
where the two worlds touch.

The door is round and open.
Don't go back to sleep.

Sun

By: Kyle Elden

Do not stay
at the dark point
of the moon
although
it’s important
you are there

Do not believe
that blackness & emptiness
melancholy flowers
that bloom and die
in the same hour
are eternal

Do not give birth
to your story
and then carry
it around
like a dead baby
you cannot bear
to bury

Do not resent
yourself for your
grief

Do not hate yourself
for that 10 pounds
for the acne
for your lack
of appetite
for the diarrhea & fatigue
for the dark circles
for all the tears
that swell and fall
and then evaporate
as if to symbolize
your sadness
has gone away
although
you know better

Everyday inhale light
slowly begin to orbit
notice the sunshine
the breeze
a child smiling
the snow
recollect moments
of happiness

Feel your truth
warm & red
begin to beat and flow

Listen to the sweet
sound of yourself
shifting gears,
driving endlessly---
until you
are staring into the
fierce face of a full moon
you caught a glimpse
of in your rearview mirror
while you were singing
to the radio

You stop
and realize that all along
you were the sun,
you just couldn’t
see yourself

The Holy Longing

By: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Tell a wise person or else keep silent
For the massman will mock it right away.
I praise what is truly alive
And what longs to be burned to death.
In the calm waters of the love nights
Where you were begotten,
Where you have begotten,
A strange feeling comes over you
When you see the silent candle burning.
Now you are no longer caught in this obsession with darkness
And a desire for higher lovemaking sweeps you upward.
Distance does not make you falter.
And now, arriving in magic, flying
and finally, insane for the light
You are the butterfly.
And you are gone.
And so long as you haven't experienced this,
To die and so to grow,
You are only a troubled guest on a dark earth.

Cradle My Heart

By: Rumi

Last night,
I was lying on the rooftop,
thinking of you.
I saw a special Star,
and summoned her to take you a message.
I prostrated myself to the Star
and asked her to take my prostration
to that Sun of Tabriz.
So that with his light, he can turn
my dark stones into gold.
I opened my chest and showed her my scars,
I told her to bring me news
of my bloodthirsty Lover.
As I waited,
I paced back and forth,
until the child of my heart became quiet.
The child slept, as if I were rocking his cradle.
Oh Beloved, give milk to the infant of the heart,
and don’t hold us from our turning.
You have cared for hundreds,
don’t let it stop with me now.
At the end, the town of unity is the place for the heart.
Why do you keep this bewildered heart
in the town of dissolution?
I have gone speechless, but to rid myself
of this dry mood,
oh Saaqhi, pass the narcissus of the wine.