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Apr 2015 · 989
Masonic Bible
Frank Russell Apr 2015
Surveying the large and burdensome
Masonic Holy Bible
Given to you decades ago
As a Brother of the Fraternity,
Left behind upon your death,

Amazed at the excellent condition
Of the text; the presentation
And family record pages blank...

One would think this a token volume
Meant only for in-home display
Until finding, scattered throughout
And clinging near the spine,
Dried and preserved clovers from
Distant summer days.

Four-leaf clovers, a couple hundred or more,
Gathered over the years from fields,
Hillsides numberless, and pressed
Into the arms of kings David and Solomon,
Mingled with Isaiah's prophecies and
Seeded about the Sermon on the Mount -
The great tome laced with leaves
Of discovery, welcome surprise, safekeeping.

Some may believe this a misuse
Of a sacred text, but perhaps
It is a testament to your disposition
That an oversized and weighty Holy Bible
Was made a repository of so many
Little verdant flags of good fortune.


- fr
Apr 2015 · 572
"Kittredge"
Frank Russell Apr 2015
Over Clear Creek bed
rolling artisan
sculpts smooth a pebble


- fr
Apr 2015 · 683
"A Flowering"
Frank Russell Apr 2015
Gaze deeply and find
stellar parentage
in the columbine


- fr
Apr 2015 · 709
Homo Sapien
Frank Russell Apr 2015
Blink,
the lightning flash
still severs
through closed eyes

Center,
on the temporary illumination
and periphery is
destroyed

Deep in the purple aftermath,
radiance remembered
as horrid ominous thunder
applauds

Defiant fear,
seeking to embody
godlike
power...


- fr
Apr 2015 · 555
Trilogy
Frank Russell Apr 2015
October 15

Seated bedside at
my father's corpse -
with whom to philosophize?

Las Cruces

Red deep in purple
sky fire illuminates
last rites at sunset

July 26*

Death weeps in despair
eternal battle futile
desert rose blossoms



- fr
Mar 2015 · 632
Threshold
Frank Russell Mar 2015
An agitation, because the object
is as yet incomprehensible,
though exhilarating is the possibility
of its being understood, fully realized -
The wonder of watching
fresh forms emerge
where old patterns
dissolve and evaporate -
A pregnant promising
of release to alternate perspectives,
varied summit-views,
of rebirth into the generative core.
There are no words yet.
They might come after this
delicious anticipation.



- fr
Mar 2015 · 1.1k
Preserver
Frank Russell Mar 2015
I am the All-Inclusive.
I project all and contain all.

Though in your mind appears
discontinuity
inception and dissolution
birth and death -
still I remain
the Unified Totality.

Alpha and Omega.
The Beginning and the End.
But there was no beginning
and will be no end.


I am the Eternal Circle
wholly enveloping and embracing
the whole
as all begins and ends
in Me.



- fr
Sep 2014 · 500
Status Quo
Frank Russell Sep 2014
Word came today from Jerusalem
the enlightened Master
had been executed.

"Why?" I asked.

"All such Teachers are silenced.
They have always been silenced.
They do not belong here."


- fr
Sep 2014 · 1.1k
"Rosetta's" Comet
Frank Russell Sep 2014
Stripped of concealing luminous wrap
and glorious elongated tail -
what a bizarre visitor you are!

Highly disfigured in shape
and as blemished as our moon
you are nonetheless a local resident
with a niche in the system
and possibly harboring a key
to understanding the phenomenon
of life on Earth.

Thus by cosmic equity,
you are further proof
that even the most
unpretentious
may become the pivotal
center of attention.


- fr
Aug 2014 · 1.8k
Identity
Frank Russell Aug 2014
A body,
consciousness,
and a name -
all this in certainty.

Yet I often sense
I am nothing more than
a question asked.


- fr
Aug 2014 · 618
Abiding
Frank Russell Aug 2014
Here,
in a moment of satisfaction,
I recall the words
you had told me
before saying goodbye:

"Never consider love
to be a tragedy.
Whenever it pushes you away
it also draws you toward
another fulfillment."


- fr
Aug 2014 · 479
Spirit
Frank Russell Aug 2014
The Birth,
Death,
Resurrection,
Second Coming -


All
And only within
Your own sacred Soul -
As Spirit is One.


- fr
Aug 2014 · 779
A Guru's Comfort Zone
Frank Russell Aug 2014
Nothing fatal;
Nothing lost.

Through ceaseless change
you have always been,
always will be.

Existence exists,
it is said -
and nothingness
is in your
imagination.


- fr
Aug 2014 · 3.5k
Priestess
Frank Russell Aug 2014
You know that I am
the needed release,
the paramount sanction.

I come after
the denial of yourself.

I cause your desire for
physical, psychical, spiritual
liberation.

I alone can create you anew
by reversing the *******
back into your core -

Forcing the nakedness and cleanliness
of holistic wedlock -
of merged bodies and souls -
of the intensity that
splits and destroys the ego.

Here in these arms and ***** -
Here in these fluids and caresses -
the holy mystery
will lovingly envelope you.

My sacred sexuality
will anoint you king.


- fr
Aug 2014 · 833
Premeditation
Frank Russell Aug 2014
I don't expect
my transgressions
to be forgiven.

I do intend
to blanket them
in a new mentality.


- fr
Aug 2014 · 797
Indifference
Frank Russell Aug 2014
Did God weep
       over the angel fallen?
Or simply intone,
       unemotionally,
"It is so."


- fr
Aug 2014 · 724
If Ever Upon The Journey
Frank Russell Aug 2014
We live not so much as to what we are
As to what we are becoming.
But I suspect that what we are becoming
Is, in truth, what we really are.
This now merely a state of separation
Hastening toward unity, integration,
                     wholeness...
Up ahead, the road will become narrower,
                     rougher...
The journey will become increasingly
                     harder...
You may want to surrender...
                     take my hand...


- fr
Aug 2014 · 2.0k
Conditional
Frank Russell Aug 2014
What you ask of me
       is not possible
              nor desirable.

Unconditional love is reserved
       for the soil, the seedling
              and the blossom,

Not for the overgrowth
       of errors, weaknesses
              and shortcomings.

I don't even love that
       in myself -
              why, then, in you?


- fr
Aug 2014 · 702
Cerebration
Frank Russell Aug 2014
How profound -
that you know that you know
of your intellectual limitations.

How fascinating -
that you claim to speak
for God.


- fr
repost
Jun 2014 · 822
No Sadness
Frank Russell Jun 2014
These tears are
because I know
you'll make it


- fr
Jun 2014 · 566
Crux
Frank Russell Jun 2014
This is world weariness
seeking the Source -
tired yet concentrated
surrendering and passive
in complete earnestness.

This the bliss
of existence fully aware -
all pains, sorrows and joys
overflowing and unstoppable
in ecstatic affirmation.

This the Silence -
where there is only
a man and his maker
and the true meaning of
synonymous.


- fr
Jun 2014 · 559
Upbraiding
Frank Russell Jun 2014
These atoms the earth's -
       not mine -
This life force carries on
       without my conscious control -
All universal law is
       perfectly executed
Minus any command from me -
       and yet I embellish
A focal point
       with end all egotism.


- fr
May 2014 · 697
Family Likeness
Frank Russell May 2014
Jesus says
of the lilies of the field:
       That even Solomon in all his glory
        was not arrayed as one of these.


Basho writes:
       *Come out to view
        the truth of flowers blooming
        in poverty
Obviously, this is not technically a poem - simply a "poetic parallel" I found amongst the books.
May 2014 · 1.1k
Indebted
Frank Russell May 2014
I've come back now
       from the periphery -
       where the multitude of
       things with names
Occupies all thinking,
                 all emotive reaction.

This must be what is termed
       primal wisdom
       - this constant compulsion toward
         the substantive.

Your arms and your mouth
The warm breath on my skin
The caressing movements of your body
Through one transient night...

Restores all
       to simplistic clarity -
Leaves me grounded
       in the real.


- fr
May 2014 · 936
Logos
Frank Russell May 2014
Not in any book
       - the timeless intonation
       of Being -
The Word
       in nature
       in completeness
       in you.


- fr
May 2014 · 662
Query
Frank Russell May 2014
"You are a lost soul,
       a fool destined for hell-fire...
  Such is the fate of those
       who do not believe the Word of God..."

"What evidence do you have,"
       I asked,
"that this is the Word of God?"

"It's The Holy Bible, for Christ's sake!
       The Word of God -
       everyone knows that -
       it says so itself!
  How can you be so stupid?!"

"What evidence...?" I asked.


- fr
May 2014 · 667
Neophyte
Frank Russell May 2014
To achieve
conscious loving union
with God -
or to weep joyously
on my knees
before an execution?

"Take up your cross
and follow me"


A reference to the hellish
torture of crucifixion -
or, as perhaps was intended,
an allusion to
the austerity of the path?

You misled me, Preacher.

I needed the method,
not the blood.


- fr
May 2014 · 794
"Sanctuary"
Frank Russell May 2014
Hushed void within
absorbs stillness without -
overarch of stars


- fr
Mar 2014 · 549
Apprehension
Frank Russell Mar 2014
What causes your anxiety
   is not that it
      may happen to you
But that you may be
   the unwilling vehicle
      through which it happens
And a new religion
   will be born.


- fr
Mar 2014 · 3.1k
March 20
Frank Russell Mar 2014
Never feel alone, my friend -
dormancy is also transient,
same as your winter depression...

Only yesterday I heard a flock of geese
overhead in the twilight
announce their return
while a heedless scampering squirrel
repeatedly circuited the trunk of an oak.

The Pervasion is always complete;
embrace it in your awareness
as the Sun's virility will soon
embrace the fields and countryside.

Regrouping the sacred elements
through delicate processes,
rugged mating rituals,
and rebirth -

Forming a symmetry
of vital love incarnate
dispelling all loneliness.


-fr
Feb 2014 · 622
Apostate's Confession
Frank Russell Feb 2014
Just like I told you:
It was not Jesus the Jewish reformer,
the philanthropic teacher,
That caused my grief
-  I had admiration for him.

My revolt was caused by
The Christian Jesus, you see?
The arrogant only begotten,
The "You must accept Me as Savior,"
The Jesus of Paul and the Evangelists,
The Jesus of the various councils,
the many churches,
denominations, creeds  -
The Jesus that they created...

While crucifying His doctrine.

- fr
Feb 2014 · 520
"Mercy"
Frank Russell Feb 2014
Lovelorn youth vaults
to her death  -  river bed
grants forgiveness

- fr
Feb 2014 · 466
"A Rain"
Frank Russell Feb 2014
Churchgoers
sing certainty hymns while
heavens weep

- fr
Feb 2014 · 504
Overlook
Frank Russell Feb 2014
When the dimensions of space
Again come to confuse
Your perspective
And time is used
Once more as a gauge
Of what is lost
And what is unborn
And you find yourself
Driving deeper
Into a nothingness
Disguised as life
And the projection
Of your dreams
Into reality
Seems but a dream itself
And all that you
Are within
Must assume the shape
Of all that you see
Then should you
Think of Love only
             - and blink.

- fr
Feb 2014 · 759
"Testify"
Frank Russell Feb 2014
Why no choir
singing now of blessedness?
fawn by the brook

- fr
Feb 2014 · 634
Affirmation
Frank Russell Feb 2014
Heaviness of soul-searching
is ****** into sympathetic arms
- alleviation in darkness.

We are the animals
desiring answers
but needing affection.

Warm lips and fluids
a temporary release
from oppressive questions

Though even sensual yearning
will be embraced
by ultimate disclosures.

Why deny your hunger
while searching
for a god?

Both share
in the equation.

-fr
Feb 2014 · 2.1k
"Nucleus"
Frank Russell Feb 2014
Barring a robin
nothing sacred
at the vacant church

- fr
Feb 2014 · 939
To A Brother
Frank Russell Feb 2014
Forgive me.

Forgive me for not asking your forgiveness.
For not accepting you as a savior.
For not believing the mythology
embedded in the narratives.
For not condemning the subsequent religion
as inattentive to your instruction.
For condoning the charlatans
who steal money wielding your image.
For tolerance of the spiritual quagmire
permitting no advance.
For passiveness at the psychological torture
and centuries of persecution
performed in your name.

All in the name of an individual
who taught the simple supremacy
of Love...

Your memory deserves
a better testament.

-fr

— The End —