New Year's Poem

A Christmas Gift

Come with me now walking out into the morning
with luminous blessings ashine on each face,
the heart’s clear light blazing all through and adorning
each surface, each blade, with its rooting in grace.

Let us take leave of this warring of matter,
enough of this mutter of money and death,
enough of being herded like so many cattle
by life-crowding thought of the ebbing of breath.

Let’s go out together, if you can yet trust me,
why not let me closer, and into your heart
despite swarming proofs, the failings you must see,
the beach-sands of reasons to keep safe apart?

For what is wrong now with the wind in the redwoods,
with the feel of your boots on the rain-dampened earth?
Must we contend in each moment with said shoulds,
unseeing the stillness we lived before birth?

Tell, what of just sitting and watching the river,
and what of the inn at the close of the day,
and sharing the little we gather together?
Soon enough, other yearnings will call us away.

Yet, how could we ever be sundered forever?
In spirit we’ll stride, even if times twain-blind.
Never having left home, no parting can sever
our indwelling care and the commons that bind.

So come with me now, for the day is unfolding,
the birds are a chorus, and paths stretch ahead.
Let’s love each bright instant, the joy that it’s holding,
and walk in the sun till the breaking of bread.