Who knows what losses
this infinitely rich
and resilient heart has suffered?

The sorrowful splendor of the Earth --
its endless cycle of gestation
and bringing forth,
its eternal season of becoming
and decay --
inspires and beckons her silent musings.

And her muted passion,
burning with the
mesmerizing ardor of the innocent,
awakens a diffident adoration
in the bickering brood that surrounds her.

How beleaguering they are!
these driven ones, so eager
to possess the elusive beauty
that stirs the dark, enigmatic
depths of their harried souls.

*** unwitting they are!
those dreary ones...
Destiny has drawn them
to the shimmering, diaphanous aura
of her breathless presence.

And destiny will drain them
like a brimming chalice,
so full of their impetuous blindness.

For they will never see
how she is set apart
by the wandering, restive vision
of the chosen.

But I see her,
standing alone on the fringe
of the tumultuous herd.

She gazes at me with
that subtle, sacred smile,
and I feel the threatening,
familiar forces of the universe descend --
Jacob
wrestling with the angel of authenticity.

She gazes at me,
and in the still light
of that impenetrable look...
the silence speaks!

I tremble in anticipation.

I listen and am fed.

For Laura.