TO TRAVEL
if only
in another grated window
all the gossip I’d fled
if only
I didn’t keep looking down the street
for music
I thought was a hymn
if only I travel with a minute of introduction
if only I am faithful
renew joy
clarify tradition and teaching
intensify practice
if only I knit community yet
weed only where needed
if only in that ancient custom of visitation
among us
I’ve been a good and wise companion
ECHOING SMOKE
if only the heart
planted through the field
summons rain
if only flowery robes ceremoniously placed
on brothers and sisters alike
with some calm
anchors
* * *
if only a pillar of smoke
falls away
into Light
if only a seed stiffens
into Light
and sways, where planted
if only the bottom
bubbles up through creation
echoing night
more than lightning
if only glimpsed, partly, by many
wholly, by none
in a flash
FRAGMENTING IN A WRECK
if only in Judgment
the lies died
if only you tell me
what were we doing
* * *
if only to break free of this obsession
with such duplicity
in the flesh
I didn’t do likewise
__________________________________________________________________________
Jnana Hodson’s chapbook, Harbor of Grace, was issued in August 2012 by Fowlpox Press. The author of two published novels, he blogs at Jnana’s Red Barn (jnanahodson.net).
