Bang the bell
start the tellin of a story 'bout a man name…

Yo, t'was a wombed man, ennui is no excuse
onus is on you. vive la differ-ents.

True, t'tell, she was an upgrade. Mito-mom.

First ol' Ish said, it sounded like,

"Wow, ishi mine? How'dyoudothat?"
so for a while ishi was her name.

Was I sleeping and now a wake, or

are we past all that?
The garden walks meeting all we met, with names,
knowns, all named

The I in Ish knew names of every man-named thing,
but Adom 2.0,

she was something else. Ish could hardly think

something so beautiful is made of me?
Why, Ish wondered, but didn't say aloud.

Is she curiouser than me?
Is that what's different? No, there's more,

but that's a lot, curiouser and curiouser,

Here come the servants forming to inform,
curios come,
kachinas from the west.

This night we all learned the dance the angels do,
on the point of no return.

Too beautiful for words and then,
past the point of no return,

Ish take her and she is mother of all living,
Eve for short. Mom.

I want to become a diver
like the scuba guys in the Thai cave
risking death to save life,
going deeper into convoluted passages
of darkness to pull life from it.

I want to become a heart surgeon
transplanting energizing mitochondria
into babies’ dying hearts
to revive and save damaged cells.
Oh to receive from the gods of creativity
an infusion of fresh energy
into this old body
and renew flagging cells
with a flowering fragrance
as sweet and unique as Plumeria!

May this diving deeper
be as fruitful now as it has been
in the decisive moments
I was able to conquer pride and self
to reach out to others
whose spirits had frowns
whose life energy was down.

I know: thinking, reading and writing
are not quite enough to reach and taste
the fruits of angels.
Like the classic tension
between “faith and works”
“deeper” means a marriage
of information and application
to get transformation.

And so these moments of writing poems
and diving deeper, rising higher
for the creative spirit
are not divorced
from kindness and reaching out
in friendship, intimacy, and love,
from taking time and spending energy
beyond these meditative walls
embracing life where it calls.

I am a diver and a surgeon
a spark striker, a flame keeper
always desiring
to move
deeper, deeper, deeper.