Kuan Yin

A green shaft of light
Appears on the Voynich Deck,
I rub my chest raw
With the eucalyptus salt,
The coyotes begin to howl,
The Vajra gate is now closed,
The Caryatids silent in the green glow,
The reddish Moon also silent,
I, the profligate and recondite Darjeeling,
Stand in the new winter air,
Bare chested, bare foot,
Eyes to the heavens,
To Orion and the sword of Hercules
Now dipped in the Blood,
Flashes of light surround me,
Castor and Pollux race
To hasten the return
To what is not normal,
After the Sun has taken the Moon,
I Call out to Kuan Yin,
The green Lunar goddess
Whose face is now hidden
Until the Dragon chases the dark shadow away.

Orion's Moon

A cloud of blackbirds
Flowed like a river,
Cutting the Kansas sky in half,
On one side
The imposing Sun,
On the other
The eclipsing Moon,
I sit in meditation
Green Tara before me,
“Om Tara Tu Tara Ture Soha”,
The Sun in one hand,
The Moon in the other,
At midnight
My head becomes the Earth,
The shadow of my being
Passes over the Moon in Orion.

With Your Head In The Cloud Of Knowing

I tried not to go to sleep in the big easy
Chair with my copy of the Glass Bead
Game dreaming of Water on
Desert sand but the
Room was filled with smoke
Embers flew about my
Head rising up to the
Ceiling
Fire at my feet was
Flickering flames like a
Butter lamp there was a
White Presence followed by
Red Orange
When I closed my eyes
Then a
Blackness which suddenly turned
Into a Crystal
Clarity when I heard you walking
On the hearthstones I tried to
Wake up but the
Light was too bright

Jesus Christ of the Electronic Heart

Electrons radiate from the heart
Of the Tin Woodsman Jesus
With pounded aluminum robes,
A Jesus who looks at the floor
With arms outstretched to the Father
As if he is giving up in dejection
At the pitiful sight he has of humanity,
His electronic heart beats with the rhythm of a pulsar,
Rotating beams of light flash down on the multitude
Who are screaming for more bread, more fish
Because twelve extra basketsful isn’t enough
To allay their fears and their greed,
So they light their candles and they sing their songs
All the while the Electronic Heart of Jesus
Keeping the beat going, telling them,
“Without Sin, I’m outa here,”
“So keep it up, people. “
“You see my hands reaching for the sky,”
“I’m just like you, but only for today,”
“Then it’s back to The Cross where I have to endure,”
“Your pettiness, your mockery, your spitting,”
“But sin is what I thrive on, sin is my raison d’etre,”
“So if you folks don’t keep sinning, I’ve got nothing to do”
“But somehow I don’t think it will be much of a problem
Considering your past actions.”
With that he was gone, like Santa up the chimney,
To be put on the shelf until crucified next Easter,
Then born again on Christmas Day
To remind us of what we really are.

The Glass Bead Game

To study history means submitting to chaos
and nevertheless retaining faith in order and meaning.

HERMANN HESSE, The Glass Bead Game



The first thing you have to do is connect,
You’ve got to make yourself easy,
Like a beast that lives up in the hills,
Or a monk in a yellow robe with a wooden bowl,
Then you have to play the Game,
The best way is to dream the Game,
Play it the way you want the other players to play,
Your play can’t just be based on histrionics,
You have to feel it,
Like something that is about to carry you away
To someplace that doesn’t exist,
Except in your dream,
Where you can be behind in the race,
Then gain momentum to take the lead,
But when you look back,
You find yourself suddenly backed into a corner
Where the only thing you can do is to take off and fly,
To the top of the hill to look down upon your own intellect,
You’ve got to connect to what you don’t know
In order to be able to walk off the deep end,
To jump into the abyss,
Never to return.