returnings

when I prematurely believed
I was perfect

God came along
with hosts of locusts
to humble and purify me

when I thought
all was hopeless
my soul doomed by sin

God lifted me up
and showed me
my essential purity

and when I was insane
I was reminded
by a Pueblo woman

that there was only one
authority I needed
to be accountable to

and in an instant
clarity and lightness
returned

______________________________


I don't know why
it is so hard to
remember to pray

everything of value
I've come to
through prayer

yet my attempts
at worldly renunciation
have been as counterproductive

as my ambitions
have been laughable

a hundred bad songs
a dozen failed ensembles
four or five colleges
countless jobs, apartments,
cross country moves, broken cars,
bad relations and self-help groups

have perhaps provided
a practical gravity

wherein everything I've knocked over
in my willful clumsiness

could return again
in flowing lines

to its Source