Be For

 

Don’t tell me

what you are against.

Tell me what

you love.

What you cherish

with your whole body.

Being against

contracts the heart.

Being for

opens your chest

like an orchid

bending toward the light.

Now is the time to depart

from the kingdom of fear

and return to the palace

of your human form.
One sweet dark nerve
in your solar plexus 
radiates a thousand times

more power

than any opinion.

Let this be your worship
on a Sunday morning.
For a little while,

don’t be against anything.
Only be for.
Be for the sun on the table.
Be for the late summer rose.
Be for tears and the laughter

of children.
Wash the whole planet

in the foolishness of God.



Image by Picasso

1 comment:

AKL said...

Thank you, Otto, for these translations!