Breath Inside

"Kabir said: student, what is God?
He is the breath inside the breath."

Honor your breath as the Holy Spirit
and She will honor your body
as the very garden where Jesus
meets the Paramour.
Thorns become blossoms at dawn.
Learn to age the wine of longing
in an empty sepulcher.
Pour yourself without a word
into the cup of desolation.
Use the yeast of opposites.
Your bread gets risen and delicious
in love's dark oven.
The hollow of the heart
is the seed of beauty.
You bathed in boundless power
before you breathed.
Is it any different now?
Let each inhalation surfeit you
with un-created joy.
Let each exhalation cast you back
into that sea of birthless night.
Wait upon the Lord,
whose form is the now
of your patience, and very soon
some invisible Lover will fill you
with unspeakable light.

Sculpture: Mary Magdalene in the
Mission Church of Santa Barbara