From the Edge of Mystery

Life has a lonliness in
Choices to be made
And it is we who chose
Within the uncertain
Reality in mystery veiled
As I stand on the
Edge of time passing
And pray for courage
To endure the changes
Inevitable in future guise.

It has taken time to learn
That hope does not have expectations
But a trust
In the goodness of the
Divine will stirring
The currents of life that
Find hidden places
To dwell in fullness.

Here on the edge I hover as if on
A sheer rock face
Shaped by the ages
Belonging to this world's past
Where grows the nodding plants
Gathering moisture
Falling from the mists now
Shrouding the river from sight
The clouds moving with urgency
Towards a valley filled with
The grace, as yet, to me unknown.

In the June Air

The breezes off the river
June filled scents intense
On the moist air filled with
Wild roses in gentle pink bloom
Their feet wet in the rising waters
Now swelling against the river's bank
With waves that sounding lap
Moving all shapes of the
Driftwood riding on changing
Times in the spring run off.

I hear the whispers in the trees
From leaves dancing in the
Arms of the wind
And suddenly I am
Young again in the fragrance of
Wild roses
Floating on the breezes
Filling my silence with
Scented sweetness
Uniting me with
The maternal soul I once stood quietly with
In the nourishing of all life
Shimmering like the sun
Across the surface of
Memory.

Paradise

The iron bars on the gates
To the Paradise filled with beauty
Locked against these poor
Mortal ways
The flaming swords
Angels fiercely wield
Against the pitiful plans
This grass we are.

Five wounds
Blood flowing from
Became the key
The gates swing wide
The price being paid
And tiptoe I through
To hide inside
The lifeless form
Nailed to the tree of
Mystery.

I saw death
Slink away to hide
Its weary form
Thrown down beneath
Your Love overflowing
Drowning my sins
In a red sea
I cross unto a desert
One day to bloom
In flowered times
To sing in praise
Always.

The Echoes of Failure

My failures hang from
My frame in rags
Blowing like tatters
On the wind
As I fall to the ground
My house of cards
Imploding in slow motion
Taking endless seconds
For complete collapse.

A knife stab to the
Central vein a cut
Across the throat
I saw the picture as
You lay in a pool of blood
Fallen victim of
Demon hate so alive
In our poor world.

In this complete annihilation
Hope buried yet again
The desert drying all
Bones watered by tears
I light a candle taper
Watch it burn down
Into the sand
This taper traveled from
Our mother's last dwelling
In Ephesus.
The loneliness of my
Failures to disappear into the
Thinness of air
Your spirit now free
To taste all
The fruit of your labors.

In memory of Bishop Luigi Padovese ofm cap  R.I.P.