Poems for Meditation

 

I used these short poems, and fragments of poems, from my book 'Wounded Bud,' as a guided meditation last night in a small group. I hope these fragments make you whole, and create moments of silence for a morning or evening worship...

 

Of your mother and father

all that remains is you.

Of the bee and flower, just honey.

Of the master and disciple

only a quivering braid of cream

poured from bowl to cup.

Why ask if there are one or two?

Compare us, my beauty, to melting snow.

Give up perfection, take up

laughter and tears.

Drown in what you are.

 

May the pilgrim melt into her path,

the path into the goal,

the goal into Presence,

the very first step

into this breath.

 

What the bud calls a wound

we call blossoming.

This is how the angels see

our gashed and broken places.

They keep singing, "Stay open, stay open!"

Don't you know that through your tears

that world flows as light

into this one?

 

Savor eternity

one moment at a time.

Only love can stop the mind

and give birth

to living silence.

 

Like an opening

chrysanthemum, get lost

in all directions at once:

this is called the center.

I’ll let you wander through me

If you let me wander through you.

This is called the heart.

Peel away another layer of the dream.

Disappear without a trace

into the inconceivable vastness

of the next moment.

 

God meant to drop this mirror,

shattering into countless images

that perfect gaze.

This is why we meet in brokenness,

putting ourselves together again

through each other,

until we recognize one face

with seven billion reasons

for astonishment.