If you were here beside me
Instead of in New York
If the curve of you was curved on me
I’d tell you that I loved you
Before I even knew you
Cause I loved the simple thought of you

If our hearts are never broken
Well there’s no joy in the mending
There’s so much this hurt can teach us both
Though there’s distance and there’s silence
Your words have never left me
They’re the prayer that I say every day.

Come on, come out, come here, come here
Come on, come out, come here, come here
Come on, come out, come here, come here
Come on, come out, come here, come here

The lone neon lights
And the heat of the ocean
And the fire that was starting to spark
I miss it all, from the love to the lightning
And the lack of it snaps, me in two

If you were here beside me
Instead of in New York
Of the arms you said you’d never leave
I’d tell you that it’s simple
And it was only ever thus
There is nowhere else that I belong

Come on, come out, come here, come here
Come on, come out, come here, come here
Come on, come out, come here, come here
Come on, come out, come here, come here

The lone neon lights
And the heat of the ocean
And the fire that was starting to spark
I miss it all from the love to the lightning
And the lack of it snaps, me in two
Just give me a sign
There’s an end with a beginning
To the quiet chaos driving me back

The lone neon lights
And the warmth of the ocean
And the fire that was starting to go out.

Inside this new love, die.
Your way begins on the other side.

Become the sky.
Take an axe to the prison wall.
Escape.
Walk out like someone suddenly born into color.
Do it now.

You’re covered with thick clouds.
Slide out the side.
Die, and be quiet.
Quietness is the surest sign
that you’ve died.

Your old life was a frantic running
from silence.

The speechless full moon
comes out now.

~ Rumi ~

Baby, I’m in a receptive mood!

“Grace is not a haphazard thing.
It’s always here, always available.
The question is…
are we in a receptive mood?”

~ Adyashanti ~

Dervishes

When school and mosque and minaret
get torn down, then dervishes can begin
their community. Not until faithlessness
turns to betrayal and betrayal into trust
can any human being become
part of the truth.

~ Rumi ~

The time has come to turn your heart
into a temple of fire.
Your essence is gold
hidden in dust.
To reveal its splendour
you need to burn
in the fire of love.

~ Rumi ~

I hear nothing in my ear
but your voice
Heart has plundered mind
of its eloquence.

Love writes a transparent
calligraphy, so on
the empty page my soul
can read and recollect.

~ Rumi ~

The Winter of Listening

No one but me by the fire,
my hands burning
red in the palms while
the night wind carries
everything away outside.

All this petty worry
while the great cloak
of the sky grows dark
and intense
round every living thing.

What is precious
inside us does not
care to be known
by the mind
in ways that diminish
its presence.

What we strive for
in perfection
is not what turns us
into the lit angel
we desire,

what disturbs
and then nourishes
has everything
we need.

What we hate
in ourselves
is what we cannot know
in ourselves but
what is true to the pattern
does not need
to be explained.

Inside everyone
is a great shout of joy
waiting to be born.

Even with the summer
so far off
I feel it grown in me
now and ready
to arrive in the world.

All those years
listening to those
who had
nothing to say.

All those years
forgetting
how everything
has its own voice
to make
itself heard.

All those years
forgetting
how easily
you can belong
to everything
simply by listening.

And the slow
difficulty
of remembering
how everything
is born from
an opposite
and miraculous
otherness.
Silence and winter
has led me to that
otherness.

So let this winter
of listening
be enough
for the new life
I must call my own.

~  David Whyte  ~

“Grace means more than gifts. In grace something is transcended, once and for all overcome.
Grace happens in spite of something; it happens in spite of separateness and alienation.
Grace means that life is once again united with life, self is reconciled with self.
Grace means accepting the abandoned one.
Grace transforms fate into a meaningful vocation.
It transforms guilt to trust and courage.
The word grace has something triumphant in it.”
~ Yrjo Kallinen ~

you are the echo in my silence
the stillness of my being
resting in breath
i feel your love

Holy Loving Presence ~

I come to you today…wholly, nakedly, plainly, humbly…asking you to bring me ever near…that nothing exist between us.  I deeply desire this union and communion with all of my heart, mind, body and soul.  And in this asking, is the giving and the receiving.  Thank you Love, for bringing me all the way home. Amen.

***
From Julian of Norwich, Medieval Mystic 1342 – 1416

And in this he showed me a little thing, the quantity of a hazel nut,  lying in the  palm of my hand, as it seemed. And it was as round as any ball. I looked upon it with the eye of my understanding, and thought, ‘What may this be?’ And it was answered generally thus,’It is all that is made.’ I marveled how it might last, for I thought it might suddenly have fallen to nought for littleness. And I was answered in my understanding: It lasts and ever shall, for God loves it. And so have all things their beginning by the love of God.

In this little thing I saw three properties. The first is that God made it. The second that he loves it. And the third, that God keeps it. But what is this to me? Truly, the Creator, the Keeper, the Lover. For until I am substantially oned to him, I may never have full rest nor true bliss. That is to say, until I be so fastened to him that there is nothing that is made between my God and me.

This little thing that is made, I thought it might have fallen to nought for littleness. Of this we need to have knowledge that it is like to nought, all things that are made. For to love and have God that is unmade.

For this is the cause why we are not at ease in heart and soul, for we seek rest here, in this thing that is so little where there is no rest, and knowing not our God who is all mighty, all wise and all good. For he is true rest. God will be known, and he likes us to rest in him. For all that is beneath him cannot suffice us. And this is the cause why no soul is rested, until it is noughted of all that is made. And when he wills to be noughted for love, to have him who is all, then he is able to receive spiritual rest.

Also our Lord showed that it is the fullest pleasure to him, that an innocent soul come to him nakedly, plainly and humbly. For this is the natural yearning of the soul by the touching of the Holy Spirit.