Van Gough

Yellow swirls on a smoke dark field
Of dancing, shining stars
Copper bleeds with solarian
In an eruption of sunflowers
From a terra cotta vase
An old man’s careworn face
Reapers in a wheat field
bundling up the sheaves.
Over paint piled deeply
Over virgin canvas
The ride the rainbow-colored seas.

He who was never whole
felt the hand of madness
Who could not feel the grace
Of his own burning beauty
Who made love to the world
As paint ran through his fingers
His soul craved the oil
As trees crave the soil

He craved the light
The colorous passion
He bled onto the canvas
As all true artists do
Bled out his soul
till nothing remained
But color on canvas
But the brushes on the floor
And the lights of the city
Under swirls of dancing stars.

He was one of those
Who thought themselves unworthy
Of life, and so they made
The world a beautiful country

He was one of those
Who empty themselves
To show the world the beautyOf the passionate face of God.

Act of Faith

Here I sit
Among the
Ever-knowing
Brain bullies
A radish among
Golden blossoms
Surrounded

Here I am
Within the circle
Of the certain.
Fighting the impulse
To laugh or scream
Surviving

God,
Help me understand
That it's all right
Not to understand,
To be smacked in the face
With silence
To be a penitent
Among the saints

under the eye of God

Green trees on a mountain top
And the stones beneath the path
Stone running to the ground,
To the earth,
To the world
To the center of the eye of God

My pack is heavy pulling down
Pulling down my shoulders
Puling down my thoughts
To the mountain,
To the valley
To the bedrock
To the bottom of the world
To the center of the eye of God.

The smell of dirt after a rain
The smell of honesuckle
Pulls me out of my finiteness
Out of the world
Out of civilization
Out of my mind
To the center of the eye of God

The whispering of the wind
And the chittering of birds
Drives my weak perceptions,
Into branches
Into sky
Into the world stream
To the center of the eye of God.

The taste of sweat
Touching my tongue
The salty taste joins me
To the stream
To the river
To the mothering sea.
To the center of the eye of God

From the sea I am led
From the mountain I am drawn
From creation I am driven
To the real behind real
To the Eye of God
To the eye of God.
Watching, always watching over me.