Imagining Mary’s Pentecost

Tending to these men
these priests
and women
all her children
so frightened
so easily startled
and maybe they should be
after all
look what happened
to her Son

The decimation
the rebuilding
and the leaving

All spiraling
down through that ache
through that perpetual tear
searing straight through
the center
of her heart

She looks over at John
beloved
of the Beloved
and feels herself
awash in tenderness
flooded in an ever-new pain
recalling how he held her
while their World
bled Himself out
upon them

Suddenly
she can sense the air
all around them
alive with diamonds
sparkling
and vibrating
tracing tingles
through every cell
electrical
like the charge in the atmosphere
before lightning
crashes forth

A rush of wind
a gasp of breath
and even before the firestorm
can erupt overhead
she feels the flames
leap in her eyes

Oh!
her Lover!!
she knows Who this is!!!
the One Who overshadowed her
the One Who poured Himself out
through every atom
of her being
the One Who caused her to swell
with His very life
the One Who gave her
Jesus

And for a moment
for an isolated eternity
she is taken
outside of time

When the images
refocus
she finds herself surrounded by
living candles
people crowned
in pulsing reds, oranges, and golds
and watching blue
the most intense
expression of flame
cascading over her
as a luminous mantle
highlighting
her singularity

The Potent Energy
that propelled the universe
into form
and motion
now nesting
in this simple room
this startling epicenter
igniting souls
disintegrating boundaries
and communicating
across each beam of light
messages of knowledge
and love
hyper-charging each person’s capacity
for vision
empathy
and responsiveness

In a shockwave of passion
everyone is thrust outward
into the streets
into the world
hearts flaming
swept up in the mission
to light every candle
to heal every paralysis
to draw every person
into a cosmic dance
of communion
intimacy
and joy

And even as she proceeds
to mother a multitude of nations
she cradles Him in her heart
just as she cradled
Jesus
and feels Him moving
through all her elation
through all of her wounds
not to cauterize
but to travel
deeper into her
and to bring her
deeper into Him
a fusion so profound
that she becomes like the moon
reflecting the glory
of her Son
so that people cannot look at her
without beholding
Him

For the Bride of the Lover
is never
ever
alone

Choosing Not To Drown

The life preserver is very near to you
It floats, multi-coloured and luminescent
There are so many wondrous possibilities
Just waiting for you to grab hold
Your fingertips are tracing the edges…

But you deny that it’s there
Deny that you even need it
Assert that you are flawless
And that life preservers are only for the weak

But I am drowning in your pain
Drowning in your self-destruction
And you don’t even care
It is breaking my heart

So I have to grab hold of my own life preserver
And see where it will take me
I need to consciously draw air into my lungs
Fight for my own life
And hope that someday
You will choose to fight for yours

Through the World of A Woman’s Heart

He created her
a brilliant sapphire
crowning
a sky of diamonds
laced with silver
and gold
unequalled

Responsive
she brings forth
abundant life
myriads of forms
and patterns
giving giving giving
and sustaining
reworking
and giving some more

Deep below all her activity
in the quiet
He lavishes treasures
just for her
and Him
to delight in
together
caverns of quartz crystals
pillars of amethysts
hidden stores of
rubies and emeralds
adorning

Deeper still
in her core
in those swirling fires
far too intense
for any creature
to dare
to venture near
He dances with her
reveling
in her wild ferocity
spinning with her
through storms
of emotions

And in her very center
in that place
of absolute stillness
almost
outside of time
He sits with her
keeping vigil
blending with her
in the tabernacle
of her heart
a portal
through which
they touch
the Heavens

Love in the Moment

Love in the moment
with each moment
pregnant
with possibilities
where even those labeled
barren
may bring forth

Earthquakes

Subterranean tremors

at first

unnoticed

and

underestimated

grow undeniable

as they pull apart

whole continents

until we can only

gaze at each other

across a vast ocean

of non-traversable

distance

and are forced

by sheer necessity

to look elsewhere

The Breeding of Dragons

Ignoring the heroes

those noble dragon-slayers

some women become enthralled by

the dragons themselves

horrid monsters

masquerading

as princes

their impenetrable scales

glinting in the sunlight

like so many

devouring teeth

 

And the dragons’ appetites

are

insatiable

 

The pupils of the women

dilate

so that only

the inflating images of dragons

may fill them

an invitation

for seductive serpents

to lure their mates

into building for them

elaborate altars

for perpetual worship

upon which to sacrifice

themselves

and their children

over and over again

 

And as the icon of true motherhood

implanted in each woman’s heart

could never withstand

to submit innocents

to the flames of Moloch

the women must first

willingly

transform themselves

into co-dragons

capable

of treacherous betrayal

 

Such is the breeding of dragons

 

The children

or what remains of them

are tossed between

piercing

shards of ice

and lashing

tongues of fire

as their imposter parents

demand that the sons and daughters

feed them

all the while

starving those young

of love and

empathic connection

 

With the passage of time

a myriad of portals

choices

manifest themselves

to the victims of

these narcissistic warlords

 

To stay

and become dragon-worshippers

 

To leave

and seek a twisted retribution

for denied nourishment

by becoming

dragons themselves

in a secondary

form of breeding

 

Or to go in search

of the dragon-slayers

within and without

and to allow themselves

to fall in-love

with the Ultimate Dragon-Slayer

who will one day

put an end to

the breeding of dragons

Out of the Ashes of Bullying: Phoenix Rising

The light in their eyes was distorted

so they thought your colours were too bright

Their ears were attuned to discordance

so your song unhinged their nerves

Their taste buds were heavily coated with saccharine

so your spiciness was violently spat out

Their skin bore the callouses of fruitless tasks

so they resented how sensitive you could be

And their spirits were imprisoned in cubicles

so they loathed the sky you could see

 

They had to quell their displeasure

never thinking the problem was them

They had to remove their annoyance

and so the Reconstruction Project began

 

First they attacked your unmatchable radiance

insisted you were all out-of-sorts

They draped you in the drabbest of colours

with many layers to mask all your worth

 

Next they targeted your music

especially your signature laugh

They proclaimed that your words were all wasteful

and told others not to give you a chance

 

They starved you of human affection

and fed you a cocktail of lies

They spewed forth all the sludge that was in them

and used it to muffle your cries

 

Like a bird overwhelmed in an oil spill

you floundered over which way to turn

The ooze stole the air from each pore of your flesh

while the weight of it crushed all your bones

You thought that the toxins were part of you

lost all sense of who you once were

You felt your soul dying inside of you

as your reference points slid into a blur

 

You don’t know how long that you lay there

in the space between existence and death

You only knew you were different

in that place of unattainable rest

 

The Divine who never had left you

placed his spark in the core of your heart

He asked you to merge yourself with it

and it became the only light in your dark

 

The glow of that light began increasing

and slowly an awareness emerged

You saw everything they had done to you

and the treasures they had squandered away

You perceived the cage wrapped tight all around you

and felt repulsed by the stench of decay

 

The wildness in you revolted

it thrashed and it bit and it lurched

It kicked and it screamed and it struggled

and it fed from that spark that now blazed

Your upheaval ignited the poison

which exploded in the heat of your rage

 

The eruption propelled you high upward

while you shrieked in the victory of birth

The toxins became the fuel you would burn

on your journey to all you could be

You drew clearest air deep inside of your lungs

felt your lifeblood infusing each cell

Your colours were sharper than ever

as you soared forth from your personal hell

 

The sky opened up all around you

and possibilities danced in your eyes

Your instincts were heightened like never before

making you primal, creative, and bold

You could never go back to the abuse they had hurled

or submit to the shape of their mold

Your heart was expanding within you

and your compassion enabled you to see

There were others who were victims like you were

and you felt stirred to help them fly free

 

Glorious as you are and shining

there are scars that will always remain

All the words and the actions that pierced you

are now marked as passages to your inner domain

 

Those bullies could never perceive you

and they cannot see you even now

There is nothing you could do that would please them

as they are earthbound, restricted, and small

You do not have to keep your gaze fixated on them

and you no longer have to be where they are

So hold your head high and look upwards

for your destiny lies with the stars