PREPARING PATHWAYS 

Raking paths 

across the ranch

for men to walk on,

clearing the Tres 

Piedras property

of its pinecones 

and pyramids 

of horse shit -

wheelbarrows and 

wheelbarrows of it -

is the way a rag-tag 

crew prepares for

a Men’s retreat.

You could easily 

say This is mindless 

work and you’d be 

wrong. Sweeping 

a forest clean

of its every last 

pine needle

is the chop wood, 

carry water

that will welcome 

the horde of men 

arriving into the wild, 

so they can, 

under a star-filled sky,

clear out their own 

shit, so that new 

possibilities 

and pathways

can emerge in them.

They will do this work

simply by sending 

their raking breaths

into the pinecones 

of the divinity 

of their boundless brains.

THE KILN

Whatever it is

that is gripping you

and won’t let go,

it won’t

until it begins 

to melt.

You’ve got to 

give it

the chance 

to release

its hold 

on you.

You must 

leave it

in the kiln

long enough

for it to melt.

And remember:

the fire must 

be Love.

THE VIGIL

After Fear 

takes its seat

with the others 

around the circle 

to hold vigil

you follow Crow 

down the dark hole.

You don’t know 

where you are 

going, how long 

it will take 

to get there

or what you will find  

once you arrive.

What you can be

sure of is: everything

is about to change.

You, most of all.

THE NECKLACE

Love honors 
what it grieves.

It turns its tears 
to beads

that its village 
can string together,

that the throng can wear,
that it can sing and dance in.

What a blessing it is 
to be adorned 

in body and soul
by what has been lost.

Let’s do our crying in the desert
while dancing together in the rain.