sunshine and being

The sun continues to be evasive here in Pensacola.  But it is poking its face out and that is a welcome thing.  Enjoying a lecture by Thomas Merton regarding the relationship between asceticism and freedom. 


I'll leave you with a new piece:


being


deep within the mystery
in the midst of
bramble and relentless vines


crawling, prickly things
rain, and the soft mud rooting the bright lotus
and its many, many petals


is a space in kairos
witness to battles without beginning or end
the powerful and the powerless


a still place seen by none other
than this very now
and there finds home, a great beast of a lion
uncaged, unblunted, majestic


there are no bars
his supple stride is dignity
raw grace, if such a thing can exist


for he is not alone
as near him is the lamb
the soft underbelly, tender and vulnerable
exposed, prey to gleaming jaws and gluttonous shears


the lion and the lamb
an inextricable dance
delicate and mystical


yet know
the lamb needs the lion
no less than the lion requires this softness
of his mighty companion


power is without measure and cause
with no fold
tenderness is with no affect
without that which to cover


what could be utterly crushed
without the protection
and watchful guardian of the one


the softness of the other
invoking the great revelation