June 12, 2009

Poems of Stephen Levine





Millenium Blessing


There is a grace approaching
that we shun as much as death,
it is the completion of our birth.

It does not come in time,
     but in timelessness
when the mind sinks into the heart
and we remember.

It is an insistent grace that draws us
to the edge and beckons us to surrender
safe territory and enter our enormity.

We know we must pass
     beyond knowing
and fear the shedding.

But we are pulled upward
     none-the-less
through forgotten ghosts
     and unexpected angels,
luminous.

And there is nothing left to say
but we are That.

And that is what we sing about.


Half Life


We walk through half our life
as if it were a fever dream

barely touching the ground

our eyes half open
our heart half closed.

Not half knowing who we are
we watch the ghost of us drift
from room to room
through friends and lovers
never quite as real as advertised.

Not saying half we mean
or meaning half we say
we dream ourselves
from birth to birth
seeking some true self.

Until the fever breaks
and the heart can not abide
a moment longer
as the rest of us awakens,
summoned from the dream,
not half caring for anything but love.


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