​The law is not shaken from the treetops
By commandments gusting from heaven
Blood paints history in a stillness and silence
Which promises a different justice...

Cool water rises from the soil

Pale blue flowers awaken

Forget-me-not

​Colours gather light and gradually fade
Gently into humble pastel shade
Changing the very fabric of the mind

Such are the denim devas
Coming to save us

Refuge

respect at my father's table
love on my mother's knee
here before and after
and here before and after me

​

​The shrouded smile

Sylvia Plath is reborn to be free

​

she shut her eyes and all the world dropped dead;
so she had to make it up inside her head

all the lies galloped in
she saw the mind go as black as sin
and she knew, she said
that she was already dead

when she shut her eyes all the world dropped dead
'must have just been my eyes filling my head'
she thought

she opened her eyes
and stepped out of bed...

would you have me sleep 
to dream of you?
she said

this is not true love
for 
unless persuaded by my madness
I am alone in my dreams
and lost to the living and the dead

before I marry a dream
I would run from the church 
and escape a life of sugar-lump sleep

and I would keep running

for I would rather
with lemon sharp eyes
wake again 
even from the wakened state
into the formless

and what would this mean
 for us?
that you must die
 to join me in this heaven?

we need not die
I do not doubt or fear 
heaven is here


one day we will die
this I must whisper 
to my deeper self
 I forever forget dying
because forgetting is itself like dying

but to be at One
I must love the sky
from the freedom of my dust
until the shrouded smile of myself
fades into the sunrise

she thought

she thought
until she found herself 
worried about the words


then
the spell of the sounds
broken
the half-understood
half awake, awoken

the cosy cover lifted 

silence ruled at last
before and after

and she could be the truth 
and not the thought 

a truth we could share
forever 
more

such is true love

she said
​

​
Time Answered



​lost and lost in each other
shadows mourn
they dance their darkness
in their own little world
of cast down chiaroscuro

raised above
wrapped in ribbons
dance the free light and colour
of heaven

between 
lies calm, priestly presence
and the sermon is ready already
in the heart of man

seen and unseen
felt between and between
lies this ambiguous body
rhythm of blood and breath
seasons of life and death
within this life

the body has its own rule
we must respect
we shall sharpen it as our tool
and expect
as we might

and towards what end
my friend
shall we fight?
does the matter really matter?
the blood shall one day splatter
don't tell the wife

yet the senses may learn 
and win a truth that may turn
us back to life...

time questions
the world turns
in perpetual doubt

not taking its time
but taken by time
the world quakes

time takes 
this is the truth
yet time takes not this truth

the inner light speaks
and casts no shadow
and the words have the sound 
of words that are heard
taken within, between between
there in the empty alley

time is answered
light of heart and heart of light
before the word is spoken
and after
celebrating the life that lies
forever in the silence

and the lost shall be found
found where they are most lost
cast adrift
pilgrims in hope of freedom

in the sea or on the islands
in the hope of freedom
shall speak the clear horizon

where the prayer falls
the truth calls
there where the grey light
ripples and shimmers
there where the silence glimmers

the humble heart
shall hear the call
never to part
never to fall

for life is encoded in the fertile seed
there is the ultimate cause

and there in between
and between the between
on the horizon
of the space and the pause
is eternity 
written between 
and between between
the lines of a life 
a life of truth
a true life
freed
there too in the fertile seed

and at the source of the river
unseen, between the between
in the trickle in the mud
there where the air is green
there at the first blood
there begins the search for us all
to stem the mighty flood

there where nature will reach us
there where nature will teach us
straight from heart
to heart

​​Read

Words and reading by Ajahn Kalyano.
Music: Cantus in Memoriam Benjamin Britten by Arvo Pärt.
Edited by Gordon Oaks.

Music is used with permission of Universal Edition AG, Vienna, www.universaledition.com
and ECM Records, www.ecmrecords.com/​​
​

Listen​

We shall listen for Thee

​

we shall not pray

in humble silence 
wrapped in earth
we shall listen for Thee

the spirit of the river 
and the spirit of the sea
shall be their deepest meaning 

the clouds shall pass
and we shall see

the words will come
to be

the flight of the dove 
calling us back
in truth and in love

and we shall have listened 
to Thee



​

The Creation

​

​In the beginning the heart full of mirth
Let go of the heaven and the earth

And the heart was without form and void and brightness was upon the face of the deep
The heart had awoken from its invisible sleep

And the heart fell still upon the face of the waters
And there was a new love like a dynasty of devoted daughters

Silence knew the inner light
And the heart saw the light and it was good

And the heart divided not the light from the darkness and brought light
Into the depths of the night
And the evening and the morning were the first day

And to draw pleasure from form cramped the heart
And formed it forever apart
And the heart saw it was not good

The silence opened and embraced the world in its Grace
And everything could find its time and its place
Which was here and now in the heart

And the earth was free to create,
To love and to hate
And the heart was free just to be
And to truly see
And the evening and the morning were the second day

And the formless appeared in the heart
And there was joy
For the heart had a new toy
Stable and bright
With which to develop its inner sight
And the heart saw that it was good
And the evening and the morning were the third day

And the heart made a body in that inner sight
To suffuse that body with true light
So that the heart may cool its age-long fire
So that the heart may find love beyond desire
Craving could cease
And the future could finally rest in peace
And the evening and the morning were the fourth day

And the heart could see all the way inside
And the past had nowhere to hide
From the love of new eyes
Or from the hearts of the wise
And the evening and the morning were the fifth day

And the breath so refined
So undefined
Filtered the dust of the world
Until its innermost heart
Never apart
Formed a vessel of formless glass
In which the suffering of creatures may arise and pass
Safe and without a sound
Distilled into meaning more and more profound
Until the seeing was crystal clear
And the crystal held so dear
That to see the suffering was to be free of that suffering and free of fear
And the evening and the morning were the sixth day

And the heart did rest in peace
And the peace was eternal release
​And the evening and the morning were the seventh day.

​

The Beautiful Princess


​
The Princess was as good as she was beautiful,
As kind as she was dutiful
And yet there was a huge surprise
Waiting behind her bottomless eyes
“I am disgusted by this body,” said the Princess
“It’s a revolting, putrid, horrible mess.”
“And yet you shine so brightly,” said the Prince
Failing not to visibly wince
“That is why,” said the Princess, “the heart is free.
Free to be seen and to see.”
“What do you see, Oh Princess?” said the King-to-Be?

“I see a great palace
Wrapped in an even greater chalice
As high as the sky

I see clouds as white and sweet as finest wine
I see climbing to the heavens the strongest vine
A stair
Made of air
So fine

I see that it at its end
The galaxy will be Thine

There at the end of time"

“And shall I have your hand?”
He said.

“The hand is made of sand
It is already dead,”
She said.

“Then must I die too
To be with you?”
He said.

“You that was never born
Shall wear the heavens and be so worn
Like a vow forever sworn.”
She said.

“What must I do?”
He said.

“To see this skin,
So frail, so thin.
That is your task.”
She said.

“I can see only your lovely face
Full of grace
What again do you ask.”
He said.

“See too the light that shines
Through and beyond what form confines.”
She said.

“The skin
Is really very thin,”
She said.

The Prince was enchanted
One day her wish would be granted
As surely as his blood was red
(And just as soon as he could get out of the Royal bed.)
​
And the Princess left the land of the real
With its little itchy feel
To tenderly care
In the open air
And the Prince would follow
When he could borrow the fare
And the time of the world passed yet all was well
For the life of the heart remained strictly parallel

Evaṃ