What Your Breath Can Be

"Let Jesus be your breath."

~St. Nicodemus of the Holy Mountain

 

Let Jesus be your breath.

He is the Door that is always

already open.

The frame has a shape,

but the passageway is empty.

Let Ram be your breath.

The arrow floats back to the bow.

That is how true warriors

win battles before they begin.

Let Allah be your breath.

The sound of "Hu" dissolves crystals

into sweetness.

Now let the Goddess Kundalini

be your breath,

turning your midnight nerves

to bolts of lightning.

At dawn, the sound in your chest

is a forest full of exultation

about nest-building.

The fierce flower that blossoms

in your body may appear

as the universe outside you,

but it’s root is a golden path

of drowning, I in the ocean 

of Am, no distance, no journey.

The honey bee can't fly,

his feet are so weighty with

sweet galaxies of lethal pollen.

So the face of the Beloved

lures you inward toward a Kiss

of annihilation.

When our lips touch

there is no breath at all

and it will be a thousand years

until your next heartbeat.

 

Photo: Aile Shebar