VERTICAL 1

If the daily world we live in lies on the horizontal, then the world we seek, the world of the spirit lies above and below us. Come in from the far reaches of your despair the desert of your destruction to the third eye of Shiva. Once you have arrived at that centre explode upwards... soar up the majestic trunk of the tree of life into the eye of the sun. Imagine a TREE a thousand feet high. The bounds of a life time is horizontal... flat.  Eternity is on the other axis. The epiphany launches us upward out of ourselves. Movement comes in from the edge of the circle to the centre and from the centre it must go Up and Up and Up. In and Up. In and Up. In and Up. The details of the daily... the details of the destruction are just that. A very thin skin of the onion of God’s Creation. When you stand at the heart of the tree of eternity and look up into the eye of the Sun you know that the creation is and always be.... Perfect.

VERTICAL 2

HORIZONTAL

We live on the horizontal. This mortal existence with all its sunrises and sunsets. We look at the asphalt at our feet. We kick the empty pop can into the gutter. We flatten the rain forest to make pasture for the cows that Micky D uses to make our Big Macs. We scallop out the coal seams. We scrape the mountains down to bedrock for the tar we use to make our action figure toys. Look at the surface of Mars or Venus. That is the flatness the horizontal we are creating for ourselves in the next generation. Do you love those big heads on Easter Island... they look grand against the flat backdrop don’t they? When you cut down all the trees you are left with desert. There is a beauty in the starkness. It is a beauty that does not include you or me. Look at my painting. In the centre is the power of the tree of life. Move to the horizons. There is nothing but desert, dark clouds, and death.

TREE

LAST TREE ON EASTER ISLAND 

               for Sandra Epp Dec 1, 2012

The last tree on Easter Island

The last tree on Clayquot Sound

Who cut, who cut it, who cut it down?

I cut, I cut it , I cut it down.

The Limber Pine, a seedling when Columbus headed west.

It’s I that weeps not Willow, She bends to caress.

A Joshua in the desert & my tongue so parched.

We kids we swung on a rope from the Golden Larch 

& Maple scarlet, we put my father in the home for the lost.

A Chickadee dee dee in the Cottonwood frost.

It’s Crab Apple wine & the new bride blushes rose.

& Sumac tea is red as desire if you’re all alone.

I’m choking from the Choke Cherry on your crazy dare.

The Spruce caked thick, & breath, my bridal veil.

I kissed you first, so shy, when Magnolia bloomed.

The viewing done, the Poplar bark so smooth and cool.

The last tree on Easter Island

The last tree on Clayquot Sound

Who cut, who cut it, who cut it down?

You  cut,you cut it , you cut it down.

I climbed the Chestnut for conkers’ spike ball seeds.

The Mangrove swamp after diving off Amber Gris key.

In love with another so I planted Tentpole shoots.
& Whirly Gigs crunched beneath my army boots.

A Tamarack, rain-tipsy after the Home-coming Ball.

The fallen Redwood rotten... a giant lifts up tall.

Cedar Wax-wing in the Mountain Ash, December Morn.

The Paper Birch glowed green the day my son was born.

The Baobob & the Bodhi  & Buddha below.

A platform high in the Elm with Edgar my crow.

The cops cuffed Pa in a Cherry blizzard in May.

The alders shivered silver & I knew I was okay.

The last tree on Easter Island

The last tree on Clayquot Sound

Who cut, who cut it, who cut it down?

We cut, We cut it , We cut it down.

BIG BANG

JUST WHEN

Just when you thought all your kisses were spent

Just when you sat so lonesome in your lonesome tower

That’s when the Whisper-King offered his single flower

That’s when the stranger’s lips brush gentle as a wren

Just when you gave up seeding your joy

Just when you crossed the names from your precious book

That’s when the letter came, a coat upon the hook

& you awoke from dreams & saw the slender boy

I’ve been alive a long, long time

& all I learned, I learned before

The sky, the sea... the door, the key

I never left, I just arrived

Just when you thought all’s left but the grave

Just when the tarry sands cover the greenest ground

That’s when the dragon turns & begs to beg your pardon

That’s when the water light comes wave upon the wave

You’ve been alive a long, long time

& all you learned, you learned before

The sky, the sea... the door, the key

You never left, you just arrived

BLACK & WHITE

If you do not embrace the shadow the shadow embraces you. A man has one major goal to master the two sides of his soul. It is not good & evil. It is the time of night & the time of day. I ask you to tell me which do you value more? Your sunshine life or your dream life. Think carefully before you answer. When you dream you are with God directly and completely in eternity. When you awaken you forget. When you are completely open you realize there is no difference between now & eternity. Between the divinity of God & the divinity of your soul. They are one. They have always been one. The shadow self wears the symbol of the ankh, the crucifix... the sign of redemption. The saint wears a pentacle... a sign of the interior dream life. It is in splitting that we lose our connection with the divinity. We split but we are one. The dreamer... the awakened one. The self & the shadow. The shadow & the luminous self. The Yin & the Yang. Me, I am a follower of the teachings of Lao Tzu. I do Tai Chi in my sleep... do the fire dance at noon.

FIRE & DIAMONDS

Seeking purity... the great desire. What purifies you. Is it the great fertility of the earth with its deep seams of gemstones & crystals? Is it the deep cleansing of the flame... the sun burning away the superficial layers to reveal the white? Is it the wind coming off the range tossing aside the clouds... caressing the blue? Or is it the clear brook stream fingering through the moss, polishing the brown eggstones of the valley. The fish are everywhere for me... the rainbow trout, the black galaxy fish of the starry night, the darting minnow flames; the great black whale shark of the deep coal beds. I seek purity. Then I close my eyes. I see the creation is perfect, cannot be added to or subtracted from... even the anxieties of this mortal life.