Above : ”Two Moons At the Edge of the Universe”. An early painting from the 1970s of the Sacred Fire experience. From 1975. Rocky Hill Connecticut. Watercolor on paper. Prints of this work are available.

 Near the Edge of the Grey World

Sometimes the answer is no

sometimes the answer is hell no

where should you stand when thunder falls?

how far away must you run

before you understand your shadow cannot be overtaken

disguised or ever closed, or ever empty?

When I was awakened 

beneath the summer sun

I was all alone

All alone perhaps I wept

All alone I put my foot forward

I started moving

Following the track of the sun

around the earth

resting only with the moon

singing only with the birds

dancing only with the wind

unarmed but not surrendered

free and wild, yet imprisoned by the indifference

of sleeping ghosts and wailing victims

feasting at the long table of their suffering…..

where they count the bullets and list

the insults and name the monsters

who told them hell no

I will sit not so in silence

afraid of my own skin and bones

and dreams

to see the light in the storm

the peace in the thunder

the safety of the truth

noisy and painful and confusing as it all is

my heart, a regular human heart

is on fire with the sorrows and the outrage

of all my relations, all my ghosts

all my monsters have torn that heart

ripped it into four parts

it was taken by the wind

it was burned in the fire

it was thrown into an ancient river

there my bones were sailing

my shadow actually pointed the way

I sailed north

I looked down

tobacco falling from my fingers

I put everything together again

me and my shadow in the long river