Leave

From time to time
with shamanic elegance
you must disappear.
Leave speech behind
and rest in the place 
where words began.
Abandoning images,
become the mirror itself.
Drop the oars of believing,
left and right.
Let the sail of your religion
be shredded by the winds
of Grace.
The mind is a little boat
without a rudder.
Why not step out
upon the deep?
The ocean of silence
where you were at home
before you drew your
first breath,
where waves of wonder
uplift you,
a gilded moon-path leads you 
to the midnight horizon,
and a new land appears
beneath every step.


Mary Magdalene on the shore in Provence, painted by Sue Ellen
Parkinson, also the cover of my book, 'Strangers & Pilgrims.'