Beyond the Birdcage

-Beyond The Birdcage-
*
Non-harm. Ahimsa.
Written on the lips
Not to silence but to empower
Crowning the forehead
To guide thoughts in love rather than hate
Listed on both palms and fingers
So that touch is gentle open receptive
So that every offering is a gift, not something to be taken
Or claimed.

Can you feel, unfolding,
When you let yourself be still,
That which is crossing
Breaking within the shore
Of your chest—it echoes
(I don’t have to put my head there to hear) the
Wings, fluttering as familiar as the ocean waves
Or the rain—The single truth of this life
Chanted in a word
All the poisons and all that can ever heal:
Prajna. Understanding.
Sutra of the heart
Words
To form hands
To hold all that is. Sacred.
To hold all as one’s own
And then to let it all go.

This,
A kiss
Antidote to both
Desire and despair
The illusion of loneliness broken in six words:
Emptiness is Form, Form is emptiness

The words are there and love has written them
But fear won’t let the ink congeal
Until you forsake your preference for blood

These words
Can’t permeate your dreams
Those moments where you declared yourself
A gutted city
In that space where you agreed to pay tribute
Perpetually with the destruction of your soul

Hateful thoughts are merely fantasy
Wings on leaves that won’t guarantee flight
That temple within you bears two truths:
A thousand palm prints staining windows
With regret, loss, violation, anger, and fear
Ten thousand tears offering every time, a cleansing rain
This truth is etched in the smile of every child.

Hope is the call for prajna
Love is the demand for karuna
To love
Yourself and yourself in others
Is maitri, metta, loving kindness,
Can you see?
There is so much wisdom
Whispered from your scars
Visible and unseen,
Those bleeding
And those yet to form

Don’t

Destroy the temple that is you.

Open

The locked doors of your heart

Allow

The frightened and hurt bird within to

Fly free.

Sing.

And fall

Wherever it will.
Whenever it must.
Trust in that which is beyond the bars of thought
Beyond this cage is perfect trust
Perfect love
And perfected understanding.
*

*(the line "Don't destroy the temple that is you" is inspired by the line from a Thich Nhat Hahn poem that reads: "Do not destroy the structure of suchness within you." Thich Nhat Hahn's words have repeatedly nourished both my creativity and my spiritual practice. I wrote this poem for a friend who is hurting and hurting herself. When I sat and listened deeply to her, the words of this were born out of her pain but also out of the space of hope). peace!