Have you ever been somewhere
the acoustics just right
and your voice somehow warmed like a fresh cup of tea?
You hear yourself singing
notes tender and bright
and the atmosphere joins in your melody.

Not a scratch or a crack.

It's just like the sunlight of goldenest hours
or the dimly lit mirror that conceals and empowers--
all your flaws swept away a merciful haze,

backlit and glowing.

Have you ever loved someone
like a radiant ghost
or a bright constellation of beautiful things?
Head so high past the clouds
in the glittery host,
you could make out the song that you wrote them to sing.

A vapor delight.

How many
of your best portraits can back to taunt you? How many
of the feelings you loved
just were never true? Many see
only
exactly
precisely
we think that we need.

How many
portraits of others have you copied back from your memory,
and got it so wrong! How many
futures and pasts have you dreamt up for closeness and beckoning?
Many
never know anything more than a cold, quiet seed.

Come to earth,
sit in the dust and let it settle in.
You are earth. Dust, yes, and star-wind.
You are more than a shadow, a mist or a light,
and all of you's looked at in love and delight.
Do not love yourself, no, or anyone else as a ghost of what they should be!

Have you ever been somewhere
and it wasn't just right
but your heart somehow warmed like a fresh cup of tea?
You hear yourself singing
notes tender and bright
and another voice carries your melody.