Sunset embraces me
with flashing coral yellow
and scarlet arms
I tie open
the flap on my tent
flooding the interior
in warm sultry hues
soon stars and moons
rush in
dancing with
nocturnal shadows
and dreamtime spirits
songs of ancestors
well up from earth’s
mysterious womb
we pass the calumet pipe
and sing our visions

Hari
my feet are raw and bleeding
How many more lives
must I tread this mortal path?

The savanna sun blisters
my tender skin
and mirages as real
as this pain beckon for me
to take refuge in them

Still Ramakrishna
with a hoarse voice
I chant your divine name
follow Your lotus
footsteps
beneath desert stars
past lonely, melancholy cactus
red sentinel canyons and
cow skulls staring
blankly into space

I am making myself beautiful for Hari
my sari is woven from rainbows
spun on the mystic loom of Heaven
the full moon has fallen headfirst
into the evening lakes of my eyes
there is only one love song that
blooms on the moist red petals of my lips
I have spread a golden net
bulging with gems of prema
and the dedicated fruits of my actions
Hariji
How can you resist the tender pleas of a devotee
eternally in love with You

Some may think me unfriendly
aloof
and even downright reclusive
since I am given to
solitude and require
ample periods of quiet reflection

Please understand
this does not mean my love
for you is in any way diminished

From my lofty orbit there are
fewer distractions
less commotion
or confusion

Walls fade away
disintegrate
I can breathe in
the
magnitude of His Love
sense His Presence
unencumbered

In that wide open spacious
wilderness within
I can spread my wings
across the endless star drunk
horizon
gaze up unabashed
into the glorious face of God

and soar

Immersed in God ecstasy
and orange robes
the true bhakta’s thoughts
are always on God, for God
and of God
armed with pure love
the slings and arrows
of maya, good, bad and outrageous fortune
are averted
God and His beloved
whirl across the bhakti path
dancing with Rumi, Kabir,  St. Francis  Meera Bai
and all the beautiful bhaktas
for eternity

Woe is me
Alas
again I have fallen for Maya!
succumbed this lifetime to the sway of
her ***** hips
and full red lips
like a vampire she
***** the life
of Spirit
bewitches the aspirant
with impermanent bliss
lurks in sultry, silken shadows
a serpent ready to ambush
Hari! Hari!
deliver Your devotees
from her glamorous talons
and sirens’ song

Beloved
You held me
underwater
indefinitely
blue skies and dazzling outer space
flooded
my lungs, body, mind,
and spirit

this was no mere death
nor ordinary passing
but the birth of
something far greater
too vast to adequately describe

There is a new constellation
in the luminous heavens
it spans the entire prism
two starry lovers
enshrined
wedded in an eternal
inseparable embrace