Friday, January 10, 2014

Who moves the Sun beyond confusing clouds

Who moves the Sun beyond confusing clouds
and opens velvet flowers to the light:
revealing cypress, oak, maple and pine
to weary poets forgetful of dreams?
If stars were words obscurely defined
and storms composed complete sentences,
would the unclear water reflect meaning,
or imagine something uninterpreted?
So whomever confounds the broad heavens
and orients the language of the sky
frustrates the reader, and leads astray
exhausted authors chasing understanding.
But a perplexed spirit finds comfort
in the fog that keeps him off course.

Thursday, January 9, 2014

Alone amongst the variable mysteries

Alone amongst the variable mysteries,
ridiculous secrets, innumerable dogmas,
philosophical systems of ill repute,
and muttered mantra I cannot describe:

I find the object whispering a dazzling
metaphor, dew singing scattered rhymes,
and clouds resembling antique rhetoric
forgotten by the turning of a dome:

So now, surprised by the delicate glory
of these contradictions, I find joy alone
reverberating like an eternal memory:

And still I am not justified: I serve
nonsense offerings to what is hidden,
and worship that which I will never know.

Remix Sonnet: Luther and Petrarch

Alone we must know so great a treasure
of good things, grace which our inner man
has in faith alone; we know by the word
priesthood doesn't consist in any display.

I find small dignities under that law:
a holy nation, truth, wisdom, salvation,
corporeal power according to the idea
of kings in the experience of life.

So now, in the midst of our enemies,
the freest of all uses various things
for teaching some little drop of belief.

And still this contradictory power system
needs neither laws nor works, but love
attained without eternal understanding.

Wednesday, January 8, 2014

Remix Sonnet: Ibn 'Arabi and Frost

I have a garden amongst the flames!
I have marveled at an ocean without shore.
I have caught this moment we are in.

I have to submit to the rule of parting.
I have an inner reality pure as gold,
And an azure dome raised over the earth.

I have a noble spirit put to trial
When he destroys it utterly at once,
Causing me to dwell in paradise.

But the concealed secret has no location,
No rapture, reason, ardor, nor tears
To quench the fire within my heart.

He whom I love is between my ribs:
I have made myself a message not heard. 

Tuesday, January 7, 2014

Remix Sonnet: Kant and Neruda

I do not love the dogmas, the formulas,
or mechanical tools of external guidance.
I love the uncertain leap of the mind
between a narrow movement of examples.

I do not love without another's guidance,
or self-appointed guardians of thought.
I love the most innocent submission
that enlightenment alone can bring.

I love perpetuating reasonable mysteries.
I love the perfect multitude of freedom
designed for extremely dangerous use.

But this, after stumbling a few times,
is very difficult for the individual
lacking courage to use his own mind.