Uncle Heart

Uncle Heart 
Poem by David Sky

Had a tea party this afternoon
Invited everyone and everything
My dead grandmother was there
Who is now my Angel -
“Are you happy?” she asks
Dear Grandma always going
Right to the point of things

I could not answer that
Because I could not say
What Grandma always
Wanted to hear
But Bird chimed in
How happy he was
And showed me his happiness
It was there in his heart
And real

Peace sat then with us
Sipping her tea
She pointed to the field
Below us to where the
Lion and the lamb
Lay down together
In the sun
Clearly this beautiful afternoon
Belonged to peace, it was her
Day

After some encouragement
The lost uncles came only
Because the lion and the lamb
Lay peacefully next to each other
Only because this day belonged
To peace
A rare outing in the light of day
For these isolated males
Who brought their brutality
And violence with them
Into the sun to sip
Tea with us all

When the lone, old warrior
Dropped an arrowhead into his tea
I could not help but ask why
He said that it gave him strength
I asked how long the arrowhead lasts
(how much strength can you draw?)
He said it lasts until it is needed
To strike into another man’s heart
This with a twinkle in his eye
Toasting me and laughing at me
I understood darkly that there are
As many arrowheads as there are hearts
So far as the old warrior is concerned

Uncle Heart walked up and
Put his warm and friendly arm
Around my shoulder, turning
Me away from the warrior
Uncle heart said confidentially
Right into my ear
Not to leave decisions to
The old warrior
Then he twisted to wink at
The old warrior watching us
And he added meaningfully
Again right into my ear
Unless it is really necessary!
Squeezing my shoulder

Uncle heart always wants to
Make things perfectly clear
Uncle heart is the tree
His roots go down deep
Into the mother of us all
Even while his branches
Reach up into the sky

He tells me to beware
Of the gatekeepers
Pressing the palm of
His right hand against
My heart significantly
He tells me then
How much he loves me
As the older men will do
I am always here for you
He says with a big hug
I know the whole family
The whole family knows me

Uncle heart is bit of gossip
Loves to confide, to take you aside
Suddenly serious, now, deadly so -
Between you and I, he insists
Don’t let anything, man or beast,
Ever come between us
Nodding at the old warrior
Meaningfully

I won't I assure Uncle Heart
And I really mean it
I think of how the warrior
Always has his place, his time,
Glancing over at him now
Sitting nearby so peacefully
Calmly sipping his arrowhead tea

(2 Grams Ecuadorian strain. This I took as a test for the strength of this new grow since someone who had never taken them wanted to try some. I never take small doses normally only large doses when I do and I don't do it often at all. This threw me for quite a loop and I had to conclude that this was a particularly strong cubensis strongest I have had. I was not prepared to actually trip here and as it was happening kept thinking a bit petulantly, "but it's only two grams!" A lot more happened in this - most significantly a heart to heart talk at this picnic with the Great Gaian Mother of us All - but I wrote this poem as soon as I came down enough to write and let it stand to represent "the heart of the trip" - pun totally intended)

Into The Heart of all Things

I take my spirituality 
With a fist full of dirt - 
Do you understand? 

I gather up all my faith 
And I find that it is 
Nothing at all 

This is of no concern
Yes, this is perfect,
I prefer to travel light

I stand in natural unity
Always and forever
With the Welfare of All

The instinct of a Mongoose
Rising up in mortal threat
Against the snakes,

I bristle with distrust
At the institutes of men
All authority on this earth

I take the extra time 
To wander through temples
Knocking over the icons

My mind glances easily
Off of the surface of things
Born to seek the depths

I know the true voice
Of the Great Gaia Spirit
The mother of this body

And now with each breath of life
I drive my crude sword 

Deeper into the heart of all things

How We Met

We met catastrophically in a deadly head on collision back in the Summer of 1963. Brian tried to blame me at first claiming my headlights were too dim to see properly - or some such nonsense but after he calmed down a bit, Brian admitted that he had been distracted fidgeting with his radio. Fatally fidgeting with his radio , I should say,. He was trying to pass someone and ran into me head on in my lane so I it was his fault, alright. But I do not press the issue too awfully much any longer. It has been almost two hundred years now since we were on earth and I was coming home from the restaurant where I worked late and Brian was commuting home from his job in the city.

It was as if our souls were flung together at death and I think it was just love at first sight for both of us, you know? Fate maybe? But we love each other as much today as the day we died together and that is the truth. They do not have marriage here or anything like that but in every way that matters, Brian and I have been happily married for an awfully long time. He is thoughtful and loving and I consider myself to be very lucky. Of course, Brian is luckier still since he has me in his death. He is just a lousy driver no doubt about that but fortunately there is no driving here, either. I do tease him about it from time to time when he is particularly annoying and in need of being put in his place. It's my ultimate ace in the hole, “you killed me and I wasn’t even twenty one years old yet!” I have to look at the bright side. I never loose an argument since that trumps any argument if it comes right down to it and never gets old, if you know what I mean?

An American Wedding

America a Golem bride blasphemously wearing white led down the shaky stern of the ship of fools serving as the wedding aisle to a wedding march played with commitment by her father the Wharf Rat who is well over two hundred years old. The groom awaits with arms folded in front of him out on the open deck with Reverend Fear, cloaked head bowed. The groom smiling proudly a toothy smile of perfectly whitened teeth the size of piano keys slight tilt to his magnificently square head, his enormous – corn fed! - body dwarfing Reverend Fear. Anyone paying attention notices he has an actual rocket not quite in his pocket.

Under the sickeningly unnatural light of the apocalypse, the sky roiling in burnt colors of purple, orange and red, lit as if by some unholy fire, the wedding party upon the becalmed ship of fools drifts helplessly on a sea awash in the color of radiator fluid toward the cataracts of the abyss.

When America our Golem bride stands at last before her husband to be, her father the Wharf Rat quiets the keys of his piano.

“America,” Reverend Fear asks in an oddly sepulchral tone - “do you take this ICBM for your lawfully wedded husband?”

“I do.” America affirms.

“ICBM,” do you take this beautiful Golem Bride for your lawfully wedded wife?”

“I do,” affirms the groom.

Reverend Fear declares, “by the powers vested in me by the state of fear, I now pronounce you man and wife.ICBM you may kiss your bride.”

KA-BOOM!

Matters of the Heart

I have become an expert in matters of the heart. It was not exactly by design yet was not without intent, either. My heart kept calling me back to dialogue. My heart never gave up on me even when I gave on it, gave up on everything. At the age of forty seven, I turned finally into my heart and with deliberation and a lot of help “opened it” which is really not an accurate phrase more to the point, my heart opened me. My heart is everything. It is as indomitable as it loving and kind. It is fearless and smart and wise and my heart loves me wholly without restraint or measure. I may not know you, but my heart knows you because all hearts are one heart. I know this to be true because my heart told me so.

You don't have to understand it, David, it said. It's a heart thing. Just believe it.

And I do believe it even though I do not honestly understand it because I trust my heart - it is the voice of God to me.

Haiku

East, West, North or South -

Wherever her heart beats

I am already there ...

Interview with a Searcher

He finally granted me access at his home on a Sunday afternoon. We sit in his den a cozy place with wall to wall books of a most eclectic nature. I notice sandwiched between an ancient looking hardback of War and Peace and a Moosewood Cook Book is a thin volume titled, “How to Find the G Spot”, as an actual example. 

Outside are low, heavy clouds and in his study's only light is natural from a few high, small, square windows letting in a diffuse, winter afternoon glow.

Why should I talk to you, he asks me evenly.

I will tell your story accurately, faithfully, I tell him truly. You have my complete discretion.

He leans forward all 6' 5” of him,  his long arms and long legs looking awkward when he sits like he's all knees and elbows – listen, this is serious work,  volunteer work as it may be, there is little of more importance – do you understand?

I return his sustained eye contact assuring him sincerely that he has my utmost respect. Just tell me what you do, I ask. 

Well, what you do is go find them. Simple as that. I focus on the task at hand and by that I mean that I not only look, I see; I not only listen, I hear. I become a receiver - do you know what that means?

No, tell me?

It means I'm receiving not transmitting.

Not sure I understand how that works?

Mind is blank, he says, seeming to relax just a little sitting back in his chair and sort of untangling himself, continuing, mind is blank, breathing controlled, pace deliberate, sustainable, the awareness focused upon reading the terrain always trying to grasp the big picture too, you know, that is important. Where am I on this earth? The first rule of the search is never get lost yourself. So many decisions to be made in terms of directions all constantly interacting with inner hunches. It is a state of complete commitment on every level.

Is it hard, I ask, I mean isn't it dangerous, isn't it lonely out there in the wilderness like that?

Not up until you get the all clear from base meaning either the search has been called off or the person was found. Before that, you're too focused.  It's afterward's it can get real. Maybe by then you realize that you pushed it too far this time. Maybe this time you don't get back. You start thinking a little wildly. Yea it's lonely. Maybe you start with that  what's it All About Alfie stuff going around in your head. But you push on through because you know down in your toes that it's not just about you. It's about this other, you know - this other that is out there somewhere who needs you to find them. So no matter what, I dust myself off, do whatever I need to do so I can be ready for the search.  

Poem - Planet K

Eyes closed, relaxed, breathing deeply, easily ...

Sensing now the gravity of her planetary body,

A magnificent creation spinning softly in space,

A whole world teeming with a life of its own.

Reaching out across time and space …

Eyes closed, relaxed, breathing deeply, easily …

We may just miss each other, I don't know,

Passing like two lone ships in the night -

I know that we will pass close enough to touch