religare
may my body be a prayer
folded and kneeling
before this altar of love
and in my hands
an offering
one sacred flower
of life
Tag: love
本道
there may be
a billion trillion stars
in the night
but only one of them
—the most beautiful and the most precious one of all—
is the light that i need
the song in my heart
and the fire in my soul
guiding me
at times carrying me
all along this long long way
winding through the mysteries
through the magic
and all throughout timelessness itself
how can i bow
before a sun that never fails
to rise?
Blue Sky
did you know
darling
that you are my
blue sky
the halcyon and the azure
during, even, these typhoons
—merciless, eyeless, seemingly endless—
darling
only together with you
can i weather
the darkest of clouds storming by
because you
you are my blue sky
the kintsugi artisan
it is as though
i knew you before i knew you
you—like second skin on my soul
carried me home
before, even, i’d known i was lost
you found me
heart-splintered and a thousand pieces scattered
but you gathered them all
one by one
like the wayfarer who scours the sandy beaches
for seashells and sea glass
for an unusual rock, driftwood, or feather
and,
with your light
with your yellow and gold
with your beautiful love
you gently pieced all of them back
together
back into this whole heart and breathing body
it is as though
you know me better than i know myself
as though you have always known me
ever since the sun and the moon
first touched
the sky
Folding Cranes
Folding Japanese origami peace cranes is one of my early childhood memories. As as small girl, I watched my mother’s quick and nimble fingers magically fold and crease the single sheet of square paper with a graceful ease that mystified me. In the time that it took me to make one crane, she would have finished several of them, and then she’d laugh with amusement at my little-girl cocktail of envy, frustration, astonishment and admiration. We gave our carefully folded cranes away to friends and neighbors, and to strangers at peace rallies.
Now I am older than my mother was then, and perhaps I’ve made hundreds of peace cranes throughout my life, inspired in part by my mother and in part by the story of Sadako Sasaki—the young girl who folded paper cranes in the hope that her wish to be healed from leukemia would be granted. Sadly, in the aftermath of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima in World War II, Sadako died at the age of 12 but her wish for healing and peace symbolized in the act of folding paper cranes lives on. Every year school children from all over Japan, and people from all around the world, make thousands of cranes and hang them up at the children’s peace monument in Hiroshima.
In this time where the world seems to be teetering on edge and everyone seems to be running on empty, I asked myself what I can do to create more peace—for myself and for others. Folding paper cranes is something simple that I know how to do. And an ancient Japanese legend says that if you make one thousand cranes your wish will come true… so I decided to make one thousand cranes for peace. Starting just last month, I have only made 23 cranes so far and have another 977 cranes to go, but I am not concerned about how long it will take. I am folding them one by one and giving them away as I fold them, one by one. Each fold and crease, each crane, and each exchange—is one small moment of peace-making and one small moment of peace itself. The wish becomes reality already—in the folding, in the giving, in the choosing to continue one fold after another fold, one crane after another crane, one day after another… night. Journey and horizon become one prayer, one act of love, one choice for peace, one way of being, one path.
And when I have folded the 1,000th crane maybe I will start on another thousand or on some other peace project… but it doesn’t really matter because in the choosing now, in the folding and creasing and loving now, peace is already my world.
the journey
as haiku:
seven thousand miles
step by step and side by side
this journey of life
as free verse poetry:
in the middle of the journey
neither shore can be seen
in the middle
the deep unknown rises to the surface and stretches
seven thousand miles in every direction
and becomes
horizon
in the middle
there is no forwards nor backwards
there is only this journey itself
step by step
and life, like a siren to the soul,
is salt and honey
and the waves crashing
but even here, in the middle, in the deep endless blue
you stay
everywhere with me
like an angel, or
an immortal dragon—guardian of my heart
and together, side by side, we see
a bright shining light
polaris
of the night
止め石 tomeishi
And then she stumbled
into an enchanted garden
where
just ahead on the path
sat a little wild rabbit, cute and captivating
stone-still
but unlike Alice she flew
up into worlds
with endless sunlight
and fields of flowers for as far as
she could see
Her rabbit,
being sometimes a stag or a dragon or a jaguar
an angel or
polaris itself,
holds her hand
and together they venture further out and beyond and further still
into this garden
into this deep well of light
where
all the paths converge, and where
only love itself
shines
in the darkness
(this is something of a sequel to my last post, “rolling stone”)
ground
i want to break open
my heart
at dawn, and
at dusk
with the flight of a thousand birds
rising
wind streaming over my body—skin bare, like bones,
i feel the shadows trailing wingtips
of ravens
and their silent caress across the bleached stones below
i want to dissolve
the day
into these rushing waves as they run
up onto this sandy shore
kissing my toes and
pulling earth from underneath my feet
i fall into their sea
sinking and drowning
all the heaviness of my heart
and in the glimmering darkness of night
i want to dance
here in the secret garden of wild roses
together
with my love
with sweetness and with honey, and with
a belly full of dreams
i want to plant each one in this soil
in this soft sacred ground
growing worlds
of beauty
Seréin
here
and
now
sailing this river
with you
silence is serene
like
the warm sun traveling over my skin
like silk
and the darkness is sanctuary
is peace
is free from every day cataclysm
from the deluge of chaos and turmoil
here
with you
this river is wide and deep and gold
and sailing underneath a canopy of sparkling stars
i find myself
home
in your enveloping arms
home
in your everywhere love
now
the sun is rising
in your eyes
sacré
i want to worship here
in this temple
of the body
where love is the altar
and where dance is the prayer
All life is sacred. Every-body is an embodiment of the divine. We are how the divine knows itself. We are divinity realizing itself. And what is “the divine”? What is the “divinity” of which we speak? Why, it is love—nothing less and nothing more.
Maybe this is it… This is the awakening… to know this not as conjecture, conviction, philosophy or belief… but to experience this as reality—the same way in which we experience the rain, sunshine, wind and soil. The same way in which we know who we are and in which we know our own names.
So… let us dance, you & i, together.
Michiru Adrienne 