for old and new friends...for rhea and brooke, don and steve and david and john and joe and especially paige

full of thanks
and looking ahead at a new road we must walk as a people,

i wish for you a rare fine fallish day
all orangeyred with freedom's courage

and deepyellow with the soul's fire
in this broad vale of Her generous bounty

from here to there

if there were ways
to be wise about these things
i would be wise

if there were ways
to know beyond all doubt
i would smile assured

but there are no rules where we are
where life is web thin
where instincts overrule
and wisdom is silent
because we are beyond
the world we know with our eyes

there is only this love with you
nothing smart or certain
no good reason to hold on
except for what i feel
when i make you laugh
or delight you out of my own delight
then the music comes up inside
and the dusky light softens and bends
around the steps on the front porch
where i sit with you in another time
we are rare fine...we are far...

and although we are nothing more
than a shared smile in a conversation
at the end of this day
we are real
and we are there
in a room in the sky
on a gossamer afternoon
in november

all that aside,
sometimes
a poet's love
is terrifying
in its absence
as there can be no
counterweight
to endless joy...
only endless
free fall
through
endless
black
of
endless
silence

aspiring to scribble superiorly

oh man....remember what it felt like to finally finally stay on the bicycle long enough to actually pedal once or twice before wobbling the handlebars and falling over? this is like that--i'm quite new at this poem-as-voice thing, and have the inside tremblies about putting my 'stuff' out there, you know?...and then my new bloggie friend of wormwood's doxy came by, who is the real thing, a professional writer/editor/author/faithy thinker ...whose stuff reads like she for sure never had wobbly handlebars...and she gifted me with this scribbler's award...what a loving thing to do! thanks doxy. ....there are some formalities that come with this award, very cool, so here are the rules as writ:

• each Superior Scribbler must in turn pass The Award on to 5 most-deserving Bloggy Friends.
• each Superior Scribbler must link to the author & the name of the blog from whom he/she has received The Award.
• each Superior Scribbler must display The Award on his/her blog, and link to this post, which explains The Award.
• each Blogger who wins The Superior Scribbler Award must visit this post and add his/her name to the Mr. Linky List. That way, we'll be able to keep up-to-date on everyone who receives This Prestigious Honor!
• each Superior Scribbler must post these rules on his/her blog.

...and so This Prestigious Honor is passed on to [ta - DA] Bob Carlton -- The Corner Bob Carlton reads/thinks/writes more and flat out does more in this community as an aware human Christian than any 10 other brilliant aware Christians combined. Okay, maybe only 9. Coffee and a chat with Bob is conversation with an eagle on the hunt at mach 1. He has focus like you wouldn't believe. His larger community is populated with an array of spiritual leaders from local to global. He's slightly more conservative than I am--almost everyone is to my right-- a counterweight to my intense lean to the left. His post today [Nov 22/08] is a great example of his artful--and often wry-- gathering of views and thinking on things post-Prop 8. Go. Read. Experience Bob's take on who we are when we actualize our faith. Susan Russell -- An Inch At A Time Here is the strong left tug I feel most days, and it is always so satisfying to read every jot and tittle of Susan's blog. If you want to get inside the mind of a deeply passionate, deeply centered Christian activist with all of the theological trimmings, this blog's for you. and then after [or before] the Episcopalians there's always the cry of the Baptist Gordon Atkinson -- real live preacher Gordon is pastor of Covenant Baptist Church in San Antonio. He is also a Real Live Serious Writer and has a ''doozie'' of a 3-part story going at this juncture. His writing reads like effortless honesty, clear and cool. And he actually takes the time to respond to comments on his thoughts and essays, which is going a ways because there are several faithful readers and sometimes they are all questions and opinions that want something more. and now for something really different Krista Tippett -- Krista's Journal I suppose it's cheating to put up a public radio show host for your consideration, and it's not exactly a blog, per se, since there isn't provision for commentary, but then maybe it's just my definition of a bona fide blog. But Krista's voice is something special, and the topics she explores on''Speaking of Faith'' --and her additional insights found in her journal--are stunning in reach and depth...stress and new findings from science on the mind/body connection, the roots and impact of pentecostalism, on the human side of being autistic, the forgiveness intuition...and her reflections on a beautiful conversation with Studs Terkel talking about faith and life and death...throughout, truly superior thinkings and askings and scribblings Casey Kochmer -- Personal Tao Musings Kochmer's blog entry for Nov 4th was: Home We just became home owners again. Now time to begin building a temple. Thing is, this was an actual micro event --the author had just purchased a home and was looking for a spot to put the temple-- on the same day of a rare macro event in the election of a democratic Congressional majority, and a democratic President who by the fortune of birth is black, which some would say was occasion for growing spiritually as a nation ...so it happens to be beautiful haiku on both levels... ...since no one can define Tao-- it just i s --right away there is a spiritual mystery that cannot be resolved... this is the kind of beauty I strive to live within. Kochmer provides an opportunity to self-reveal [very taoist, that] ...sometimes the blog entry is haiku, or a single photo from an experience such as a day at the beach, or a note on current thinking or teaching. Peace. Be well. Go Play.

doxyanddichotomyanddialogue, oh my

tonight i'm ruminating on doxy's comment that
"...those folks on the other side of this issue
are as sure they know what God wants as I am.
Since the two things are mutually exclusive,
we can't both be right."

[i have repented of neglecting the context here--the discussion was on prop 8 and i am in full accord with the position doxy took...i also confess that the point i discuss below is nowhere near as interesting as what inspired it, so check out her blog at wormwood's doxy]

it happens a lot...the perception of an either/or-ness of things...
good/bad, light/dark, right/wrong, i/thou, liberal/conservative...

but aren't all of these actually on a continuummmmmm
that ultimately arcs and comes full circle? for example...

... we have so recently lived through a few very odd
tea-party-with-the-red-queen moments
wherein the far left is actually saying the same thing as the far right...
holy congruence, batpeople!

... i becomes thou
in communion,
prayer,
the state of grace,
the erased lines of forgiveness

...right is wrong
and good is bad
and vice becomes versa
in different contexts
and who gets to say anyway?

...neither light nor dark exists without the other
neither has definition without the other,
both are locked within the same cohesive sphere
creating the energy of life

...and what is that theory of physics that i can never remember..
something about how a mere thought of defining a point influences/moves the point....
or something...see what i mean? it moved...i can't remember it...

...so now we come to the big IT in polarity...
God/Devil....Good/Evil
what if there is no such dichotomous thing?
what is free will but the gift of God?
what separates the ordinary from the divine?
is not all of God's creation sacred?
...nothing is not of God...
...if there is a Devil, then God created it
and by being part of God's creation
it is of God...the ultimate infinite continuum

so, let us consider the possibility
that everyone is ''right''
about what God wants,
about who God is
and what that means in the context of our lives...

for me, it is always that
to mature in love is the only thing we are here to do...
and regardless of what we perceive as ''evil'' or ''other''
it is somehow to be loved/forgiven/graced/alleluia-ed/amen-ed
and in learning to love/forgive it
we are smoothing out another wrinkle in our soul