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          .

          IV. Return

          "...the tide that carries us farther and farther away from our beginning in time is also the tide that turns and carries us back again." --Frederick Buechner

          "that which is loved romantically is, for the lover, an image of God." --Mary McDermott Shideler
          * * * * *

          Two Lovers

          Two lovers
          gray with age
          arrive at the door
          of an old white
          church,
          where their life
          as one began.
          Fifty years ago
          they walked this
          aisle hand-in-hand
          from the garden
          into the wilderness;
          now the wilderness
          has bloomed--
          now the garden
          is filled with hours
          of ruby slipper sand.

          1.

          There is the longing
          in the soul
          that dreams
          and waits
          impatiently--
          it is the owl
          who'ing in the dark.

          2.

          There is a moment
          when lovers know.
          The dance of courting,
          romancing,
          sweet seducing,
          draws to a close
          as a curtain
          marks the acts ...
          when lovers know.

          3.

          There is the pause--
          so short,
          so eternity,
          when the breath
          is held,
          when the words
          rush out around
          the question--
          the sun rises
          full
          and is never seen.

          4.

          There is no time,
          like the time
          that falls away ...
          when there is
          only knowing ...
          the faces of time,
          the beauty out
          of time.

          5.

          There may be
          an ache
          of absence
          so minutes swell
          and drag as drops
          of water on a
          pane of glass
          in the wind,
          the clock moves
          in largo,
          the passing is ever
          out of reach.

          6.

          There is this table
          where I sit and gaze
          upon the sun and moon
          as they drift across
          your eyes
          and fill me with
          their light--
          I can see
          a thousand suns
          and moons
          in the turning
          of your eyes.

          7.

          There are the
          walls that echo
          carpenters
          who labored
          long ago,
          in this darkened
          room, where the
          lovers blow
          upon the coals
          that glowed so
          orange red--
          they feel it
          in the bones
          that pound
          as hammers with
          a rhythmic slap
          of a banjo clock.

          8.

          There are the days
          of looking back,
          the days of birth
          and wedded bliss,
          the photographs
          that now bemuse
          and soak up
          the hours that spin
          into a woven
          thread,
          the lovers weave
          to dab their eyes.

          9.

          Lovers know the
          history--
          the winding
          of the vine
          that carries them
          in pumpkin coach--
          these roots
          hold all the shoots of pain
          these roots
          hold all the bloom of time ...
          the lovers
          only know.

          10.

          Lovers know the
          fullness,
          the lovers know the
          ends,
          the last empty
          heart
          within the
          first,
          the first full
          heart
          within the
          last.

          Two lovers
          gray with age
          arrive at the door
          of an old white
          church,
          where their life
          as one began.
          Fifty years ago
          they walked this
          aisle hand-in-hand
          from the garden
          into the wilderness;
          now the wilderness
          has bloomed--
          now the garden
          is filled with hours
          of ruby slipper sand.
          * * * * *

          "Within each of us there is a tribe with a complete cycle of legends and dances, songs to be sung...Every I is a we" --Sam Keen

          Four Corners

          In the four
          corners
          of his life
          sat the four
          saints
          blowing on
          the sea as
          winds on the
          points of a
          rooster vane,
          squeaking
          "wake up!"
          and see
          there's a new
          day so
          past is passed
          once more.

          The first saint
          stood and bowed,
          and lost his
          graying wig,
          with a giggle
          and a hiccup
          turned and danced
          to the center
          of the room.

          The second saint
          steepled his fingers
          against his nose
          narrowed his eyes
          and spoke a single
          word, which he
          caught in mid air
          and walked it
          to the center
          of the room.

          The third saint
          winked and tapped
          his foot,
          he rose with a
          flush of red
          to his cheeks--
          he brought a
          flower
          to the center
          of the room.

          The fourth saint
          closed his eyes
          and whispered
          ssh! He breathed
          a couplet into
          his pocket and
          drew a song out
          in the center
          of the room.

          Things were
          crowded in that
          small white space
          the four collided
          and turned around
          back to back
          they were the
          faces of the moon,
          face to face
          right hands
          interleaved
          they took a vow
          to be the sun
          of atoms fused,
          centered in
          the small
          white room.

          * * * * *

          "For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face.
          Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known."
          --1 Cor. 13:12


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