Raja's Verses

Shards Shattered Rough,    around the ridges Clear,     and keen like crystal Shrapnel Shreds of broken hearts and broken fixtures Fly, and in the slow exploding  Crystal mixture One's embedded deep into my stomach Pain Of all the splintered things that could have been Sharp The thoughts of other worlds we should be in Tender is the wound, in war When Love sustains the strikes from Sin

No Love,  We are not alone, not alone, not alone,  Nor ever have been Not on the rooftops, between treetops and the arching dome Where the pink tinge, in a ring around Made us feel grand, and bold, and vulnerable Nor when snowflakes fell, white on my hood, my head,  My nose, and his… We are not alone, in the familiar streets, All full of sounds, or bare, where all there is  Is feet --   the simple sound and sight  of walking, and of thinking thoughts. Not on the road, all searching restless, Never And when a word will pass unnoticed, When another shoots and misses, And the fiber that we try to build our love with frays Or fails And wishes,  Lost, unsaid, unspoken, fade away…  There is an Always And it peeks in corners, cracks in broken mirrors Something makes a walker stop And turn to look behind her Stop, a frozen second, just to stay And maybe, many, never noticed Until after, ever; ...

Pansy Soul-stricken, by the violet of the pansy by the wayside Just a single purple petal … uncontainable Silken and majestic, royal velvet magnanimity Shimmering in sunlight, with what glorious, secret potency Alive…! She is alive, and all in motion The scintillating purple hues hide galaxies of molecules Which labor,     never ceasing,  keep her stretching, keep her breathing  And she vibrates  It all vibrates, with a silent, humble energy Vitality,   vivacity, and unconcerned audacity What wonders! How Beauty makes her nest  in little corners of existence.  How even when it withers  There is something here I know it's there That’s infinite 

Green leaf, blue sky Ocean deep, heaven high If I fall upwards     into the cerulean.. Would it make a splash?

Yeshua,  Burst of light, Fathomless Free one, Seed and full fruit of the only maid mother You pierced the wall of our earthiness, entered Wrapped in our fleshliness Cloaked in the ordinary Yeshua This I whisper, with ear to God's fetal heart-beating Save us, from darkness and destitute doubting  And teach us to love, little loved one Dear Yeshua Immanuel

Ocean  Ocean, sing your sighing song anew Fill my aching heart and wash me clean Surge, beneath the sky of endless blue Teach my soul the truths it has not seen Ocean, let me walk upon your sand Soft below my feet, and wet with you Let me drink in heavens, water, land Ocean, sing your sighing song anew. 

Is it not a little odd That pleasant, quiet solitude Is only found in silence And the lack of anyone? That company, that need of man Besought by all in sanity Is sometimes not relief  But more like poison? For Solitude is shattered By the presence of humanity Broken more with spoken words To shards … of loneliness

Words Roll from the tongue Formed, caressed, deposited gently Into the embrace of open silence Words bit and kick and rip and slash Words crack and splinter, bang and crash Words fondle, foster, linger slightly Leap and sparkle, traipsing lightly Pay Attention! Words Are a symphony of percussive consonants and melodic vowels, sounds which rise and fall  in rhythmic sequences inspiring wonder in the one who listens well.  So choose your words To conjure pictures in the mind And careful, sharp impressions On the senses

Stirring There is a pull toward the light There is a draw toward the shore There is a fearful, dreadful dawning Which my heart cannot ignore There is a hope that had been sleeping Locked in a dream inside my chest Now in the deep, I feel it stirring Breaking my peace, robbing my rest What does it mean? Hope like a tyrant What is this Love? Love like a sword They always said the truth was freeing  Not that the Truth demanded more Some distant whisper, rippling waters Only I can't make out the words Strong as thunder but soft as the breezes Crisp like the call of a morning bird Somewhere, a pain I cannot take  Hints of a force too strong to bear But if only it's not so strong I break There is a future waiting there There, in a gleam of white and gold, There's a horizon, bright and bold Here is a call        I can't forget Here is a dare        ...

Wake up, little flower! What are your yearnings? Where does your little heart lie?  For a Gardner it's torture To stand by and ponder While leaflets may wither and die Wake up, little flower! The sunshine awaits! Will you not see the world in its wonder? It's yours for the taking In all of its splendor If only you'll open  and stretch to the sky

I saw the parking pole tipped over sideways And a ripped up piece of vest, strewn on the ground Maybe the rain had washed away the puddles Maybe it was the men who put the caution tape around  Who stood  Where they had stood  where they were then I was reminded  Of an oak - or maybe a maple - in the darkness Whose dent, just like a scar, it fresh displayed A little scrap the last of the red wrecked remnant Smashed  He picked it up from the ground where it had laid Something, like a greyness, weaves it fingers In between and hovers in the space Where custom's smooth cool circuit was disrupted Crunched like a can and thrown out of its place Where the clear glass image of our living  Was struck one sharp knife-blow,  and shattered,  without a trace And the grey wisp whistles, swiftly, past us:... almost How to call it? How to speak When words are like the hasty, busied steps  Of passers-...