Weekly Poems: A Sixth Anniversary Poem and More

HAPPY SIXTH ANNIVERSARY

Happy sixth anniversary!
As years pass, the coating wears away,
Perhaps revealing more than one can see,
Perhaps revealing more than one can say.
Yet what one feels is more than ecstasy.

So is love far more than one can bear --
In grace, in truth, in sacrifice, in power.
Xylophones play on unheard, the air
Tingling somewhere deep beneath the hour,
Heaven within the heart that seeks it there.

HOW MIGHT I, IN FAITH, DO AS YOU ASK

How might I, in faith, do as You ask?
Innocent, I hung upon Your Word,
Great with the intention to be good.
However, here life flows the other way.

How might I remove the inner mask,
Opening my heart to the absurd,
Letting go the righteousness I would
Yet have between the truth and what I say.

Deliver me, then, naked to this task,
And turn away, Whom I so long have served.
Yearning to repent, as well I should,
So let me see myself in my own gaze.

THESE SEVEN MONTHS THAT WE HAVE BEEN TOGETHER

These seven months that we have been together
Have been the loveliest of all my life.
All moments dance within your balmy weather,
Nor could my heart be anything but blithe,
Knowing I have all that I desire.

You've chosen me, with all the world to choose,
On whom your glance falls like a holy fire,
Undoing all that would such joy refuse.

HAPPINESS, ALL SNUG, LIES FAST ASLEEP

Happiness, all snug, lies fast asleep
As spirits roam the neighborhoods at night,
Let loose upon the Earth till it be light,
Laughing revelers, whom death doth keep.
O spirits lost, who wail but cannot weep,
Wanton worshippers of rage and spite,
Each the unknown author of its plight,
Equal in the pain you sow and reap,
Now come to us from out your vasty deep!

SOME FIND THEIR IDENTITY IN COURAGE

Some find their identity in courage,
In giving nothing up to loss or pain,
X-ing out all traces of self-pity,
Then taking on the demons once again,
Yielding only what the years must ravage.

Sing, then, of those who rise above the damage,
In valor beautiful, if rarely pretty,
Xerophytes that bloom in harsh terrain.

I'M MARRIED TO THIS MUSLIM ARAB

I'm married to this Muslim Arab,
A lovely woman who wears the hijab.
Our differences dissolve in love
Of God, of life, of one another.

A lovely woman who wears the hijab
Comes naked to my marriage bed.
Of God, of life, of one another,
We then say not a single word.

Comes naked to my marriage bed,
As naked as we are to God.
We then say not a single word,
But silently I thank the Lord.

As naked as we are to God,
Our differences dissolve in love,
But silently I thank the Lord
I'm married to this Muslim Arab.

READ THE HOLY BOOK AS THOUGH ASLEEP

Read the Holy Book as though asleep,
And in a dream awaken to its beauty,
Making it the music of your moment
And weaving it like gold throughout your day.
Do not come to it alone to reap,
Avid for the kernels of your duty,
Neglecting the thick flowers in your way.