~ FLOR LIBRE

Hybiscus
Orchids and
Luscious green leaves,
A meditator's proxy
For the axis of
The mind

I find my spirit
Has exhausted
Its capacity to deal
With the world
And I'm in agony
From the wound

I distill my grief
To adapt to the
Present moment,
I'm ripping off
Every illusion,
Daring to bleed

I concentrate
The pain, but
I don't want relief:
I want life -
No enlightenment for me
But living

~ JUMP

Jump
Into the space
Between
Your thoughts
And seize
The dream
That plunders
Your flame

ACCIDENTI INTERIORIINNERMOST INCIDENTS

Churning vortices of fire
Centrifugal tunnels of water
Bursting scattershots of rock
The mechanics of upheaval
Bleak cataclysm
In my distant time

Subtle fractals of chaos
Anatomizing the storm
In illusory psychical constructs
Engulfed by the deluge of
Destructive power

Sudden
Intent
Strenuous gestures
Mental events and
Raw energy of Nature
In harrowing confrontation
With the hallucinogenic disruption
Of an interior shamanistic
Ordeal
Mesmeric curvilinear forcefield
In the mandala forms
Of fantasie fetched from the
Abyss

QUADRILINGUAL MADRIGAL

AMANTS DANSANTS Comment danserai-je? Je laisserai mon coeur danser Comment chanterai-je ? Je laisserai mon coeur chanter Mais tu, comment te danseras? Il laisse voler ton coeur au vent Je descendrai du bleu - Et tu viens à danser avec moi Ici à la lumière Tous les amants dansent ensemble sous le soleil et le coeur de ceux qui ne nous joignent pas est tourné à pierre et puis écrasé

DANCING LOVERS How shall I dance? I’ll let my heart dance How shall I sing? I’ll let my heart sing But you, how shall you dance? Let your heart fly to the wind I shall descend from the blue - Come dance with me here in the light All lovers are dancing Together under the sun, And the heart of those who join us not Is turned to stone and then crush’d

AMANTI DANZANTI Come danzerò? Lascerò danzare il mio cuore Come canterò? Lascerò cantare il mio cuore Ma tu, come danzerai tu? Lascia volare al vento il tuo cuore Io scenderò dal blu - Vieni a danzare qui con me alla luce Tutti gli amanti danzano Insieme sotto il sole E il cuore di coloro che non si uniscono S’impietrisce e perisce

NAACHTE DEEWANE Main kaise nachoongin? Main apne dil ko naachne doongin Main kaise gaongeen? Main apne dil ko gaane doongin Par tum...tum kaise naachoge? Apne dil ko udne do hawa ke paas Main us neele aasmaan se utrungan Aao, mere saath is roshni me naacho Saare deewane naach rahen hain Is ssoraj ki roshni mein Aur jiska dil hamare saath mil ke nahi naachta Woh pathar ka ho jaayega...aur fir choor choor ho jaayega

~ RISE ‘N SHINE

Waking up early in Rome

Cries of defiance
Rise from the Aventine
In a sparrow’s glide
And break the blue sky
Echoing ripples of memory
Then falling swiftly from the air
The fragments of this fragile image
Ring on the choiring cables
And jangle gently in the wind
Like a quiet piano string
The waking blood
Now floods the apprehensive silence
Fearing the heart may quicken
And start to romp against the rib
Soft and insistent as a secret bell
Under a latinate cupola
Then life will have to begin.

~ APPRAISING HOME

Through stalled air,
Unshadowed light,
A few leaves fall
Of their own weight
My woods oppressive,
The sky gray.
It begins in mist
Almost at the ground
And rises forever.
The poplars file silent,
Almost natural
But not quite,
Almost eternal
But not quite.

Here is what
Has always been.
Here is what
Will always be.
Even in me,
The eternal quest
Returns in rest,
Even to the slightest of
My interrogations,
A brush of wind now
Licks my face and answers.

My head is loud
With the labour of words.
My tongue hungers
For the sweet of speech.
But it is in silence
That my hope is,
And my peace.
A song whose lines
I cannot make or sing
Sounds Nature's quiet
Like a millennial root.

~ RETURN

As I feel myself reappearing
From the profound rapture
Of the core,
I question, momentarily,
The value of returning.

For an instant
I am tempted to remain
In the place of infinite beauty,
But I begin to think of the interest
That life in the world holds -
Music, books, art, people:
A different kind of pleasure
Than the other,
And I let myself rise
To the surface of consciousness.

What would happen
Next time
If my joy in the world
Is not quite so strong
And I yield
To temptation?

~ 2 DEDICATIONS & 2 CONSOLATIONS

ECOSSE Hail in spring Turns my mind To calm lochs and Patched fortune	LEONARDIANO Magical hand Celestial mind You generate The longest solstice For man’s ephemeral Stay
INTENSITY Sitar stroking The fibrils of my Sensual indulgence Deep	PAST WEEPING On a glass pane Dried droplets of Lacrimal salt

~ I HAVE BEEN WATCHING EVENING ARRIVE

I have been watching evening arrive
The shades of black and blue
Cover the burst of flames
The sun has left behind
And some vital part of me
Being sanctified.

My eyes nailed to the dark
I melt into a murky sea
And some part of my soul
Tears its flanks apart
As I lay down alone in regret
And consume the night.

My fishing heart
Has craved itself vain
Its thumping folds cracked open
In hunger until they became
Two wings and held up
An ocean of longing.

Yet I can scribble invisible words
And perhaps you appear near
The night forcing an embrace upon us
The smell of our communion
alluring every sense and
Sweetening the sinews of this life.