GRATIAS by Larry Goodell

Delicate energies.
Elliptic of the egg of the universe.
Our teeny home larger than the span of creation.
Right here instant of the know it all moment.
The moving momentum, swung around energies
that is so small ego washes out
and the still center which is never still and not the center
is everywhere I look and look out from.
Paradox of the center of my mind
what can I know? what is there?
and where?

Again, I need, freely given, you, whoever you are
whatever, when, where
the kiss of the peace of love which started it all
long before humans, before kisses
the great joy of being that expressed itself
in the embrace of the beginning that loved itself
out into space, the creation of habitable and uninhabitable
worlds in process, in development,
in the eye of evolving being catching the light for the first time.

Oh first light be my light
oh what could it be that started up but some form of love
be my love
in the free form of caring that comes after receiving
sight through the rampant urge to survive
to hear, feel its way perceive smell get out of the way
find, feel, eat, clean itself, oh creature
embryo beginning, baby of light, egg of the sun’s path
star guiding stars, guiding planets, teeth grinding
food grown and hunted, chewed up swallowed
in the heat of the gut, energy to the brain
breath to the lungs, green to the leaves, seasons swinging
summer into fall into winter now.
The fire of the fruit wood prunings,
be my fire in the stove in the step-down living room, be my hogan
be my freely given energy, come what may
my unmerited favor from the love of beginning
light God, water spirits, earth rhythms
be my freely given, unworthy bungler in my own skin
drunk orange juice water vitamin C, fighting this cold
nose draining, fire popping, warmth from growing
watering pruning drying burning
be my warmth as it always was
as you favor me no matter my faults they are lifted
and your influence warms me, your spirit revives me
operates to regenerate and strengthen as I sit
in the middle of the night, stars up through the clear skylight
be my stars, the moon out the west window
be my moon that inhabited my history
be my guide as the source of love burns on
and the heat from the burning wood fires my heart
in concordance with your gift
from ancient Chinese and Greek & native texts
and from right now you, in the spirit of its pleasure
that expanded to everything good in the pulsing
game of life & battle of instincts and learning peace
be my grace, gratias, be my freely given,
be the favor and love you honor me with
gratias
be the influence, the spirit you are
operating around me, in me, forever beyond me
be the grace I read of and feel freely given
in this that warms everything and speaks now
gratias. Be the gift you are which is love freely given
from within. Gratias.

© larry goodell, 2015