entering the silence

walking in two worlds, half-spent in the half-light of a waxing moon
willing to risk, accepting anxiety, confusion of motives, the humanness of being...
willing to yield, fully present to the spirit's profound beauty...

my priest, where is eucharist for those
who cannot repent of their bodies
who are on spiritual fire to burn down the artifice of religious debate
in order to recreate love

enter the silence, he says
dismantle the structure of knowing, he says
disrobe the mind of its creative impatience

enter the silence
cover the window of the soul's naked longing
walk past the remembrances that trace the face of the beloved on the walls of the heart

enter the silence, he says
...one might as well walk through the fair portals of hell

and yet, when is love silenced
but that a distant keening rises and calls the whole body to tremble and shout out for mercy

and when is passion smothered
but that the heat of one word ignites a flash fire of joy and consummate clouds of hope

and when is the soul's longing denied
but that the eternal opens a thousand windows and ten thousand doors of the pavilions of heaven on earth