Addiction

I could not rid myself

of my addictions,

so I transmuted their yearning

into You.

I thought that the hollow place

inside my chest

must be veiled in the smoke

of Habana robustos,

the earthen bouquet of

oak-wise well-aged whiskey.

Now the fragrance of 

the merest breath delights me

with the musky finish

of your love.

Emptiness rejoices in the fullness 

of thanksgiving.

Longing itself is my

inebriation,

for I have met the Friend

whose glance changed

everything.

Solitude became a wedding,

night a darker sweetness

than desire.

I have too many

radiant centers now

to be alone.

Silence has been swallowed up

in the music of namelessness.

You flow into me

and I flow out beyond your edges.

Foolish and crazy,

self-luminous,

I must be the One

to whom I have been praying

for ten thousand lives.

Only the naked and the lost

can savor these words.

They alone are worthy

to beg.

Sculpture: 'Christ the Beggar' by Timothy P. Smaltz