What will you do when the clocks no longer tell?
After you smash to pieces Cronos' clock
And you slip into the stillpoint as the Eye opens
In the palm of your hand; after you cross
The Threshold and return to offer up your Boon
To man.
When the ego falls away and you begin your
Gift of servitude.
When the trees drip light, and each child you
See has around their head a circle of light.
Light surging up and over,
Bleeding from eyes and hands;
Oceans of light illuminating beaches;
Lovers enveloped in a cocoon of light;
The crow blasting through photons,
Climbing currents into the face of the sun
To erupt in all-consuming flame;
Like William Blake driving Apollo's
Chariot into a supernova;
Walt Whitman pulling from the River
Why a fish erupting and igniting his
Beard, showering him in corpuscles of light;
Like a Devish whirling, shooting off sparks
And laughing like a madman dancing and
Burning in the Dragon's jaws.
And Vincent, in your dreams, deep in a
Sea of sunflowers looking up at you
With the wondrous eyes of a child
And waving his arms like a Sorcerer
Conjuring and you see what he sees:

Heaven in a wildflower.

High above and brave;
Taunting the waters below.
With this bridge we have conquered
Open spaces
And Time opens its wings
To let us pass without aging.
Who ages on the bridge?
No one.
Children are arrested in a state
Of wondrous apprehension.
The old forget gravity's pull
On their brittle bones.
It is a marvelous thing that connects
Our world to
Middle Earth and Rivendell; the great
Castle of Gormenghast, Narnia and
The fathomless depths of Cthulu; the
Temples of the Oracles; the lost rock
Walls of the Necropolis; the emerald
Towers of Oz; the Memorial to Krypton
In the Fortress of Solitude; the waters of
Lethe; the expanse of Midgard and the
Rainbow Bridge; Mount Olympus;
Daedelus' Labyrinth; the Inferno, the
Purgatorio and the Paridisio; the dark
Forest's of Pan; and the broad field's of
Chiron.
And the galaxy of stars, of worlds destroyed
And created by your Will, that shapeshifter
Of Prima Materia that stretches out in
The limitless space that is your mind.
This ancient construction of arched
Rock, mankind's greatest achievement
That draws the curious, the adventurous
Without verdict or punishment, and gives
Them the ability to walk on air, defeating
The current of death that rushes
Obliviously below.

A shadow stands beneath the tree
Pointing at its heart.
The Other lies in a puddle
Of blood on the forest floor.
There, the shadow begins to
Merge with the tree; going thin,
Wide, spreading inward, leaving
The body on the ground to its
Own sad fate.
The shadow raises its hands upward,
Fanning them like leaves; its black
Skin becomes rough, porous,
Joining the roots that splay
Underneath the soil, reaching and
Seeing those invisible kingdoms.

There, with an intuition of its
New life, it forgets shame,
And hatred
And fear.
It wants to give up its shadow
Ways, and live a new life,
A pure life;
Simple being,
Never hurting another thing.

I know you;
I recognize the sorrow in your eyes.
These roots run deep;
They are the calluses of the world.
You come from the center
At the heart of time; you are proud,
And trusting, wounded and bleeding,
And your shame drags you down
Like a lead weight into the
Darkest regions of your mind.
I have seen your daughter; I believe
She has your mother's eyes.
She is the brightest jewel you
Cannot touch, and you are wading
Water until it is time.
I think I will call you Narcissus,
And pluck that flower and
Place it between the pages
Of a treasured book, the one
Celebrating the life of the Poet
Who no one loved until he died.
I know you are hiding from the
Gaze of the Gorgon's eyes, with
Arrow notched and bow drawn,
With the intention of slaying
Her before you turn to stone.
I know you walk the dark woods
Where there is no path,
Insistent on making your own.
Here, I drop a pebble and watch
Your face ripple until it comes
Smooth again.
The calm, black water frames
Your haggard face and masks
Its hidden depths.
Behind your face there is
Darkness looking inward
Like a collapsing star.
Your mouth moves like mine
But it does not speak; it betrays
The artist you think you are.
Just one thing before I
Let you reclaim the depths in
Which you swim.
I have denied knowing you
Three times already, and told
I look a lot like you I have sworn
"I am not him."

Sear your wounds
With underwater flame
And sacred sorrows.
There is hurt in your eyes,
And a bitter heart moored
In the leaves of your open
Veins.
A girl of salt will bring
A cup of tears
To wash your broken feet.
They are burnt tears,
The girl a ******,
And youngest of sisters three.
In her silver mirror you will
See the reflection of a tortured face.
She will place her hands
Tightly over your eyes
And her palms will bring
The night like black sunflowers.
While death meditates
You will have perfect dreams
Of faces rife with compassion;
And centuries will pass
Under the mirrored water.
When you awake
You will possess great power;
And it will free you like an
Arrow to its ark.
The heart's sharp pain
Will release you and you will
Go forward into the dawn
Like wildflowers exploding
On their stems.

"Time flowing in the night"
                           Alfred Lord Tennyson

"Have I dreamt my life, or was it a true one?"
                           Walter Von der Vogelweide


Look for the sleepers on
Their backs, eyes closed,
Their palms upturned to sacrifice
Their dreaming bodies to the night.

Not knowing that even as the
Sun rises wearing a halo of liquid gold,
And as their long dark lashes lazily open,
They are not waking from their dreams.
Outside the hummingbird whirring in
Dizzying aeronautics, and the barn owl
Shutting its fierce yellow eyes

Are dreams too;
All dreams.

The morning routine:
The taste of honey and oats
On the tongue, the orange-yellow
Melon scooped and swallowed hard,
Waking the senses; the bitter coffee,
The slightly burned toast

Dreams,
All dreams.

It was a book delivered to him
By a misty-eyed stranger in rags
Who spoke but a few words barely
Audible and, with a toothless grin,
Hobbled away, though his gait was
Somehow a noble one.
This had happened a few nights ago,
Only the book remained unopened,
He was too tired at the end of the
Day and there was work to do in
The fields and that stubborn tractor
Breaking down each midday.

It was last evening that his curiosity
Got to him and he kicked off his
Work boots and sat with it in the
Reclining chair; he put on his spectacles
And began to read.
He was not a reader much; his time
Reading was mostly spent on the
Good Book, which he found somewhat
Difficult to stay focused on.
But this book was different: he was
Engaged after the first sentence.
There was a stirring in his chest
And he intuited from the incredible
Words that there was something here
That was true.
He read until the moon was high
In the night sky and he turned the
Last page at sometime after midnight,
Falling into an easy sleep in which
He dreamed that he was a Persian
Prince and each night he was told
A story by a beautiful girl. He KNEW
that he was dreaming and he knew
There was such a thing as magic, even
In his mundane world.

Now the sun in a heat haze.
The old chipped weathervane on the
Tin roof of the barn, casting a long
Shadow on the rows of wheat,
Waiting to be harvested.
As he climbed onto the rusty
Tractor he felt a sense of wonder
Present in all these things.
As the old tractor belched and
Caught fire, he had the thought
That if he was still dreaming,
As the book had said, he felt more
Awake than he had ever been in
His life.

"Time flowing in the night"
                           Alfred Lord Tennyson

"Have I dreamt my life, or was it a true one?"
                           Walter Von der Vogelweide


Look for the sleepers on
Their backs, eyes closed,
Their palms upturned to sacrifice
Their dreaming bodies to the night.

Not knowing that even as the
Sun rises wearing a halo of liquid gold,
And as their long dark lashes lazily open,
They are not waking from their dreams.
Outside the hummingbird whirring in
Dizzying aeronautics, and the barn owl
Shutting its fierce yellow eyes

Are dreams too;
All dreams.

The morning routine:
The taste of honey and oats
On the tongue, the orange-yellow
Melon scooped and swallowed hard,
Waking the senses; the bitter coffee,
The slightly burned toast

Dreams,
All dreams.

It was a book delivered to him
By a misty-eyed stranger in rags
Who spoke but a few words barely
Audible and, with a toothless grin,
Hobbled away, though his gait was
Somehow a noble one.
This had happened a few nights ago,
Only the book remained unopened,
He was too tired at the end of the
Day and there was work to do in
The fields and that stubborn tractor
Breaking down each midday.

It was last evening that his curiosity
Got to him and he kicked off his
Work boots and sat with it in the
Reclining chair; he put on his spectacles
And began to read.
He was not a reader much; his time
Reading was mostly spent on the
Good Book, which he found somewhat
Difficult to stay focused on.
But this book was different: he was
Engaged after the first sentence.
There was a stirring in his chest
And he intuited from the incredible
Words that there was something here
That was true.
He read until the moon was high
In the night sky and he turned the
Last page at sometime after midnight,
Falling into an easy sleep in which
He dreamed that he was a Persian
Prince and each night he was told
A story by a beautiful girl. He KNEW
that he was dreaming and he knew
There was such a thing as magic, even
In his mundane world.

Now the sun in a heat haze.
The old chipped weathervane on the
Tin roof of the barn, casting a long
Shadow on the rows of wheat,
Waiting to be harvested.
As he climbed onto the rusty
Tractor he felt a sense of wonder
Present in all these things.
As the old tractor belched and
Caught fire, he had the thought
That if he was still dreaming,
As the book had said, he felt more
Awake than he had ever been in
His life.