TRUST THE WIND 

if pollen 

empty of effort

can trust

the wind

to take it 

where it needs

to go 

to germinate

then surely

this human and 

that human

can believe

their love, not fear

will deliver them 

through whatever gusts 

they find themselves in

SONGBIRDS

each moment

is an ardor 

and a mystery

waiting to arise

there is no noise

there is only 

the emerging signals

the random 

fluctuations and flukes 

ready to be teased 

into trial and error

refined into happy 

accidents arranged 

as patterns

repeatable in song

birds do this 

perched in their trees

rehearsing behind leaves

Beethoven did this 

on walks in the woods

in notebooks 

his snippets captured

as seeds

for great symphonies

what do you hear?

please, sing your song

one stray note 

at a time

THE ANATOMY OF A GHOST

it has no organs

blood or bones

no nerves 

tissue or tendons

no circulatory system

whatsoever

no genitalia

beating heart

or breath

it is light

and only light 

the light of a hunger

that spirits its way

through the carnal world 

as desire’s diaphane 

billowed by disappointment 

NASRUDDIN’S TEARS*

1.

Inside all our yearning

is a bridge we can’t cross

until we open to the gap.

2.

Chase away the mule

and a mustang will return

leading the stampede.

3. 

The space between the lover

and the beloved, is the distance between

the divine and disappointment.

4. 

There is no such thing as “the sweetest” 

of anything, there is only the taste

of that being tasted.

5.

Underneath Nasruddin’s tears

God is drowning

in the desire to be known.

*Inspired by Open To Desire: The Truth about What the Buddha Taught, by Mark Epstein