THREE POEMS FOR FAITHFUL RESISTANCE

“May love radiate through me”

When I say that
just before the singing bowl
sounds on my phone twice
a day, do I really mean what
I’m invoking? Because
it’s a lot. Love radiating
means I burn with it, I yearn
to put a stop to all the little
indignities the earth
suffers at our hands, I learn
to put myself in the way
of the powers, that they
may be undone. It means I
mourn each loss, means my
ears are filled with what
demands justice,
means I am ringing, ringing
with the songs they march
to, means feeling deeply
all the time, means that rest
finally comes only when
I plead before the place
that lifts, for the prayers
that don’t cease, when I
let my heart become a
fortress, or break.

“You have to carry the fire”

because spirit needs matter,
because we are dust made
whole in an alchemy of love
and imagination, fired before
time into being, into becoming 
sparks in a particular time
that light in a particular place.
So: don’t retreat. When all is
darkness, when the world 
seems bleak, cup your hands,
receive, carry the fire.

“In Light and Shadow”

I.  Think of shadow
    bisecting the night
    of your mind
    from the light.
    Know
    there is no 
    me without you,
    I’m still here
    when dark stains
    your view. My
    presence abides too,
    in the streaky sun.

II. Shadows can be
    cool respite—
    don’t shrink
    from the shade,
    hold the thought
    of the sun.
    See the line
  where the shadow
    draws away
    pain.
    Think of the space
   it makes.