Contemplating the Planet Venus

stopping the car on top of the hill
midnight, black velvet sky,
and just over the western horizon
the brightly radiating jewel,
just about to follow sun & moon into the night

beyond this world of petty primate concerns,
suchness is easy to spot, purity, an immaculate beauty
that is laser focused, piercing directly through the heart
and so immense that there are no words.
to die for a beauty like that!

this touch left me shattered, unable to sleep
not knowing what to do with this
unexpected kiss of the beloved
that music, that prayer, that vision, of what?
how many multitudes do I contain?

In The Air Tonight

and then, after the first warm day with naked feet
and purring cats and coffees
beside the little pond inhabited by
toads madly in love,
it suddenly feels too cold to stay outside.

sun sets behind the hill, nightfall,
first bat flies through the empty dark blue
under a beautiful conjunction of
Venus and Jupiter, worlds
whirling out there in the eternal night

Scent of Mud

The ice cold wind bites. The mud is deep and soft
as I walk uphill.

Did I hear that familiar sound? Looking around in the vast
grey cloudscape, I finally find the V formation up high,
and while I watch, they suddenly start to loosen the form,
circling for a while.

I pass by my favorite oak, ears hurting from the cold wind
while thinking of the forest of sequoias inside my soul,
huge ancient beings, soft-barked,
holding and protecting me in difficult times
while I curl up underneath them.

The image vanishes, I look up again
the formation has disappeared somewhere in the vast grey.

Minutes later, more calls from above
and I find, looking around, more and more formations,
flying with the strong wind towards their
northern homes. Why does this sound speak to me
so strongly?

Later, back in car
drive home, heating up.
Mud underneath hiking shoes
slowly heats up. The scent of soil.

Heart Mathematics

(Today's field recording of spring birds and geese slowed down to 150% length and pitch)





Spring comes like a huge wave, nothing can stop it
as if there is an invincible force wanting it to come.
That force is in the air, in the grass, in the trees.
Geese flying back to the north,
magpies building elaborate nests, working hard on it for weeks.
There is nobody wanting winter back.
The force of spring
is everywhere, it is in everything.

He keeps wondering as he slowly
walks through the world that is busy waking up.
An inexplicable preciousness all around!
And what is this thing that
is burning so brightly in his heart,
in the center of things?
A flame of joy that is almost
too much to handle.

Good to have loving companions who can share
the flames, throwing the fuel of their own love
on them as a wonderful gift, multiplying them -
shared love doesn't add but multiply!
These are God's wonderful
mathematical laws for the heart
too immense to speak about
no understanding necessary