Eclipse

 

If you could see

 

the best of me

 

it would be

 

upon my knee

 

in humility

 

before the thrice-holy

 

who eclipsed my heart

 

with hope

 

apart

 

from the present pain

 

of this deadening day

 

in which I have no say

 

as to what is right or wrong

 

in a song

 

gone horribly off key,

 

dissonant and dark,

 

except for the spark

 

that longs to embark,

 

arms cast wide,

 

deep into the divine

 

who once was mine

 

when it was sublime

 

to be

 

His/or Hers.

 

Then and nevermore.

 

Amen.

--- Darrell Arnold

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fear

 

 

“Life is made of fear. Some people eat fear soup three times a day. Some people eat fear soup all the meals there are. I eat it sometimes. When they bring me fear soup to eat, I try not to eat it.  I try to send it back. But sometimes I’m too afraid to and have to eat it anyway.”

--- Martin Amis

Ouch!

“As they say in India, you can’t rip the skin off a snake, or you’ll kill him, but at the right time the snake sheds his skin. Our patterns, our stories, who we experience ourselves to be — that’s our skin.”

--- Alex Adams

Just Because

Dangerous and Noble Things

I  feel my boots

 

trying to leave the ground

 

I feel my heart

 

pumping hard.  I want

to think again of dangerous and noble things.

I want to be light and frolicsome.

I want to be improbably beautiful and afraid of nothing,

 

as though I had wings.

 

--- Mary Oliver

 

Here Today

“We have only this moment, sparkling like a star in our hand… and melting like a snowflake.”


--- Some Wise Someone Somewhere

I Would

I would

I would lay my head upon your heart and listen to your innermost thoughts,

     rub my beard against the flush of your face

     and kiss your cheekbones one at a time,

          two, three, four more

     until I found the softness of your mouth.


I would quiet your already still soul with my tongue

     drink down your smell, taste your venom
    
     and then surrender to your power
         
          in a show of my own.

               I would.


Then again --- maybe I would not.

     For fantasy alone fuels the fire of my desire

     and makes sin burn bright with holiness.

          For should is stronger than would,

          and even if you beckon

               I won't.


          But I want,

          so I would.


--- Darrell Arnold