Thursday, June 14, 2012

what we ask for before we know we're asking








































six a.m., the coolness of late spring

i have walked out alone into the world
where we pray together
young naïve monks
though we are not monks
and we do not pray

first light is a very old hammer
and mist a very old bell
that shimmers and rings
above water on stones
through the branches of early memory

i would turn back to you now
i would pray my mouth on your mouth


13 comments:

  1. James, this is wonderful - all of it!

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    1. Andreas: the world just is -- sometimes we get to see it ...

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  2. I wish I could express myself the way you do James... ;-)

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    1. Lucia: ...but so much falls through the mesh ...

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  3. what a wonderful effect, the light seems almost holy which fits with the first stanza though I love the surrealism of the reversal. the old hammer and the old bell taps directly into mythology and archytypes so while the poem seems so delicate (especially the last two lines) it is tremendously weighty.

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    1. Marion: thank you for reading as you do :-) the light touches everything -- sometimes we see, and this is a grace ...

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  4. Now that is what I'm talking about!!

    I hope you know what I'm talking about :))

    but yet I said nothing but I say nothing for you already know :))

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  6. and one doesn't know whether the mouth you turn to and find waiting and embrace in that all-encompassing prayer - is that of your lover or that of God. i suspect it is both :-)

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  7. Roxana: it is both :-)

    you understand very well :-)

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  8. this poem - i could follow this poem blindly and feel very well sighted. it speaks to me as one thing becomes another, transcending form. would it only speak to all of us. would we only all follow.

    (aren't these mouths, the mouth of the lover and the mouth of god, the same? or rather, don't lovers not have mouths at all but isn't it that god finds his way tunneling into being through the walls of bodies, drawn blindly by the sound of the bell of love? this i never knew before but now believe.)

    xo
    erin

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  9. erin: this is our one conversation that continues in words and bodies, god finding the world through us, god seeing and knowing through us ... is that what human beings mean when we say love???

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