my definitions are like stop signs in the middle of a one-way road puzzle-made for the fear-ecstasy of certainty yours lead by first time examples like apple trees and gravity like eve and knowledge of falling like children tumbling on the hard-knock, and rising like the cross of the desert, carrying, and crying when we are thirsty we carry the desert on our sun red shoulders knees raw blaming the sand in rage until sand is just sand repenting our sins in tears until father's wine glass is just a wine glass again there is no such thing as sin there is no such thing as god "how else do i get love like that cross to you?" He said and that was the final point and then there were none left and then i was circling in this place like i have always been "God is the blue air," said Mary Because there is no such thing, not out there And oh, the love inside that ! My mother's always right Sometimes I wish to invite her To how truth is like a sand castle Fortified with moats against the waves Until it is reunited with its enemy God Lies Like that trick of the light That same blue air Resting wordlessly wrapped around the earth Blanketing our heartplace "It is what it is" The hard truth of the matter; Ever softening Like the acorn in the salty sea When Truth is Bigger on the Inside Call it Love Bigger in many ways With carrying capacity For both nights and for days "God is a lie!" screamed the child, then he learned to tread light. "What does this word mean to you?" asked the lover; then he became beloved. So what was left? With all these grains of sand sifting through his fingers once again. "I never did learn how to build a castle as good as my best friend." There was this wedge: "If you do not crawl on your knees, God shall flatten your face to the earth and dust your inheritance away." As that scepter drove into the sun's bride. And this one: "You cannot be both, so you must choose." As the sun's daughter curled up, shivering, eclipsed on the dark side. He found himself Lost again in the halls Of her sandcastles. Listen: The Word is an inside bird. Let her out of your cage. There is no authority On what God ought to mean to you. To blaspheme is an inside job Against your own spirit. If God is a lie, then do not act like God is truth. If God is truth, then do not act as though God is a lie. Let no one claim your authority over you, Unless you ask for it, Consent is your power; Your power, the Word too— That I can ripple through your sound, If you want me to. Be the riversong sung by the reed of all things Say: I am the dance of the that which becomes your manyworded play And lose yourself in performance Within you there is The child who believes And the child who says No! to garment, who Love nurses with milktears, who weans Love marries opposition into a one name, who Loves love, who Life longs for Itself, the child God is the Safeword The Eyes that mean No The Less that means More The No that means Yes The Lie that means Love The Stopgap that means (No) More! The Thunder that makes Lightning The Faith in a Beautiful Lingering silence Am I trying to make a point again? Well, That's what a safe word is for— That's why the priest says Bismillah Before raising his knife To offer an end of a life In the Name of Life "Bismillah your old self," Rumi says Like that gap between you and your beloved That calls out for closeness The ending that returns you To the you in each other.
