It’s the breath that roots in grief
the deepest discipline
is to not get caught
in the politicking of meanings
what this label and that name
are supposed to be
what it meant to know you
and all that it stripped away
poetry is the grief unconcealed
raw and exposed
a sprinkle of dictionary and a karmic bond
true minds that are alike
hearts that burn like one flame are rare
we listen to the same beat
in imaginative words
like a song, you run through me
rhyming in it all along
the rest is just the intimate space
inside the distance between us

Yeah, I know you.

you don’t get to choose how the waves come in
you play the cards you’re dealt at the table
until winning or losing
are all the same game
until staying centered
is bread and butter discipline
everyday
to accept the rolling curve of the wave
without judgment I become the silence
of the mountain
the knots exposed by the strain
show me how
so close yet so far away
I let the stillness that permeates
dance me to the nature
of innermost ethos
the poem of living where I shelter in
ubiquitously whole refuge

the ocean is power
who are we but riders
on this great sea of being
the shell of the crab is hardened by impact
but his heart is timid jelly wanting only to be safe
the mother of all beings manifests confidently
to show enlightened activity
through the inner physician
transforming the daily poisons
into extraordinary medicine