"IN THE ARMS OF LIFE" prologue & part I (from 1979)

In the Arms of Life
VARIATIONS ON A THEME

Prologue:

…the blinding light of the sun fades
to the gentle presence of the moon
light permeates every crevice.
…even in the sun, the moon is--
presence not seen.
… search for the quiet moon
amid the glare of the sun...
a whispered song in crashing.
... keep a quiet room
that says "yes" and is present
to the singing, gentle moon.


I. Night: the moon and the sea

Quietly now, in the dark, the moon pulled the sea toward itself. The sea rose from its bed and reached for its love, blindly groping for what it could only sense, unable to withstand the yearning for union.

Frustrated, unable to reach far enough, the sea fell back, constantly crashing down din it self--yet, at the same time, always reaching up the silent goal of all its striving.

And all that the sea nourished and held reached with her, lifted up with the heaving and striving of their source. Fish, eel, turtle--plankton and plant--the carcasses of men and their treasures, all were drawn toward the moon they could not see.

And the gentle light of the moon penetrated the birthing water of the sea. Quietly, it permeated the surface; and the water captured the light and made it its own, reflecting it back to its source. And they were one reality sharing the same light.

The water quieted now—the crashing subsided as the sea rested in the arms of the light, in the presence of its love. In union, the moon and the sea smiled at one another quietly in the night as life began.

tbc

elegy....to a friend

....and what fell was silent
as a leaf's fall after
the spring of open up,
the summer of flaring out
and the fall of drawing in.
As the sap fall into the depths
to the heart of the earth,
so we draw into the source.
AND quietly, without goodbye,
We go over---
silent as a leaf's fall
quiet as the snow....
the end of a life that was thunder
and flashing out
--a glory!
and...silent as a leaf's fall
we surrender into the arms of life....

1977 for Tiny