Saint Julian Press
Kevin McGRATH ~ Poet
W I N D W A R D
O
N E
Now that the light is closing
And
the circumference of days
Decreases
and diminishes as
Darkness
moves about
And
we walk the years:
What
grain do we leave behind
Heaped
on a thin dry earth,
Offering
what to the future
So
others might enjoy more life,
Those
who gave us laughter?
The
old voice of human suffering
Whispering
for centuries,
The
sorrow that overcomes us
All
our joy in loving and
Songs
of marriage and birth:
Dust
and sand and emptiness
A
rainless dry cold world,
For
night is the final condition
Of
humanity and its going
Until
we learn to be quite still.
From
lakes and channels we arrived
Beached
upon this world,
Beneath
an arid rainfall
We
drove our vessel shoreward
Pleasurably
speechless:
To
where the sea refounds
Its
source and roads are home,
Going
back perpetually
Truly
aquiline in spirit -
Where
consciousness began.
We
had built ourselves a ship
A
boat that was unseen,
So
beautiful that none perceived
How
it flowed and how
Perfectly
it moved the sea,
Attuned
to a slow tempo
Of
waves and full ocean:
Where
a bird became a fish
A
girl turned to a tree,
Irresistible
as streams
Young
men moved like water,
Silent
as a gliding hawk
Crossing
from limb to limb.
A
bird rises from a stone
A
fish vanishes in light,
A
girl strips off her leaves
To
reveal perfect form,
Or
a young man insists
That
his love is right and
Liberation
a natural moment.
So
launch your vessel soon
We
are conceived at sea,
Repetition
day by day
Where
nothing is exclusive,
Send
that ship on voyages
That
none can ever say,
True
wealth is never spoken.
Buddhaghosa Visits Suvarna Bhumi, Myanmar, 19th C., photo credit, Lilian Handlin.
BURMA STUDIES FOUNDATION