LIGHT HOUSE (for David & Kathy Toth - May 3, 2013)

The light house lights the darkened water wide

For you & I are drifting far from shore.

The beach-drunk sun set hours & hours before.

Admire the moon... the ever-ebbing tide,

The lap caress, the rivulets of bliss. 

Above the blue green gold of dreamless sleep,

The Milky Way, the depth of downy deep.

In love, we drift as if no land exists.

The waters rise & lift us side by side.

We cannot rescue love by loving more...

No death by drowning saved by single kiss.

The swell of sorrow, the dark sea’s endless sweep.

The lighthouse calls to lovers lost in love.

Took forty days, then Noah caught the dove.

ZERO POINT FIELD

THE CROSS

Montreal - my island city. 1534 : Jacques Cartier plants a cross on the side of the St Lawrence River. A cross stands to this day at the summit of Mount Royal. I am not one for symbols. The cross, the crucifix, the ankh, Robert Johnson’s crossroads: ancient symbols that separate us. East & West. Catholic & Protestant. European & Iroquois. Atheist. Agnostic. Believer. When a people erect a symbol it stands above them even if they seldom notice. I grew up in a brick house on the English side of a divided city. The cross stood at the dividing line. The Quebecois lived to the east. I remember. Memories shimmer, disappear like reflections on the surface of the sea.

PORTAL

Have you been there? Create a meal. Write a poem. Paint a painting. Sing with your eyes closed. Dance the Chaos Dance. You, the you, you use to drive the car of yourself  disappears. Ecstasy. Out of your body. You disappear. The Divinity of the Universe flows through you like water in the glass sluice-stream of the Ocean. That is when the Muses - Calliope, Euterpe,Terpsichore & their sisters slip through the portal. The great joy of creation is to be the vessel. To disappear & let it come through you. The sky. Empty as the sky. Empty as.....

EMPTY CANVAS

I see each day as an empty canvas. The sheer whiteness of the stretched linen exhilarates me beyond words. My journey over the last half century has been a quest to find my genuine self. Only recently I have sought out emptiness in its own right. Emptiness does not equal the void. Emptiness = “No-Thing”. Deep space. A drop of clear seawater. For the painter the white canvas emerges from the snowfield like a prism of possibility. I raise my brush dipped in the spectrum. Clear the mist from the morning window. Days of life. One day at a time. I open my eyes. Who painted the Sky?

PHAROS

The great Pharos of Alexandria one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World guides ships into the harbour of Egypt from stormy seas. Darkness seeps everywhere. There are reefs, abysses & evil dreams just below the skin of our day. The Lighthouse protects us. The beacon light sweeps everywhere. Do a 360. Now you see where you need to go. Towards the light. It is not so much safety you seek as certainty. A single source of light radiates out of the centre... my centre... I know I need fear no fear. Fear is Darkness. Darkness is Fear. The Lighthouse in the dark night on the dark seas with the storm surging. Light calms the waters. The Sovereign Light. The Light Majestic. The Light.

LIGHTHOUSE

The face of the wave like a slap of glass

The smother of sky like an inky sponge

The bob of me like a fallen apple

The shattered ship like a  deck of cards

The drowned crew like a herd of shadows

The naked body like a four a.m. fever

The solitude like a floating wheel

The salt of death like the taste of spit

The cries of the maiden like a forgotten dream

The aimless swim like a dance with a broom

The cause of the calamity like a wedding party

The reason for the voyage like a sick note from mom

The destination like quitting high school

The first mate and his heroism like a burnt out match

The captain and his bluster like a rooster in a millpond

The great black sea like a seed on a bun

Is 

that you 

my sweet 

on the widow’s walk? 

On the roof 

of the clifftop castle?

With the one candle 

that never goes dim.

Hold it high, dear, 

higher than the moon.

I wish  not  to die…..

not tonight 

in this soulless dark

Deep in the drink

I wish not to die

Not tonight dear

Hold high 

your single beacon

Hold it high

I wish 

not 

to 

die