SPIRIT SPEAKS

from “Matter, Shape, & Spirit”, a response

to Tao Yuan Ming’s three part poem of the same title

I confess I’m fully content

with no grand plan of the universe,

free, unfettered, invisible

and everywhere. Like wind that flows

down a valley, I’m lighter than the world,

farther than the tidal hush of midnight,

gauzier than dream. I trust imagination

to stay one step ahead, my cleverness

veiling my shyness. What I owned

were only those moments

of solitude, wholly possessed.

Everywhere portents herald doom

as rain follows thunder,

while here in the wilderness

I strive as promised to uncode the omens,

to plumb your heart, my husk,

through such troubles.

At this crossroads

in a waste of isolation,

you’re all I can claim.