Is Now and Ever Shall Be

Death takes without our permission
Pulls from our hands treasured petals
Cools the warmth of hope
Shades the sun.

Without our permission...

Wordless, and sudden
smolders like thunder clouds,
dampens what is dear,
pours out what has been prepared
and day is suddenly night.

Hard pressed for poems
for Death now presses us,
we fall again into the Stream

Like stones heavy
like polished, cold stones into cold, white-brimmed water
clean, scraped, burnished by pain,
cold with sorrow, empty as water
we tumble.

What now will give us breath, set us free?
What is now and ever shall be?

This universe too groans for healing
for all that springs from her decays
She too withers and cannot offer peace.

Nor can any sprung from her womb;
the rose, wheat, salt, stars,
men and women, philosophy, poems and songs.

Our cure as is for every creature trapped in this time
must come from Outside, must come down
must enter the Stream
and take on sorrow too.

Incarnate Love...

This is the Spring unspoiled
bubbling up, fresh, into our salt sea of tears.

This is the poison's antidote
The Answer to the echo of our cries.

This, only this, makes new
sets free
as it was in the beginning
is now
and ever shall be...