In the realm of the deathless
a realm of light. The serpent
is the garden of paradise. I
who have lived submerged, a thousand
feet beneath the ground. Hemmed-
in- on -all – sides, yet embraced . . . by the heavens, look!
See, the brilliant gold of the sun. Listen,
. . . to the resplendence of the moon and stars. Now
A tree, then a leaf, a truth
seeker, awakening. . . as if by sound.
Masked spirit, am I, disintegrator. . . opening
toward unlikely friendships, whose seeds hold invisible life, unfold
. . . in unexpected ways, with sharpened sight a
lens to the mind, suchness
imperceptibly indwells. For no other animal, is quite like the human animal – echoing
so deep, expressive of the sorrows of the world. Lifting
the cloak of a strange familiar, drawn back, and toward a
subtle madness, lends transformative voice to fearsome places.