what these experiences are like. One has to see and touch trees, rocks, dirt and dust. One has to listen to music: guitars, pianos, orchestras, birds, crickets and bees - lots of bees - classical, pop, rock, country western - as well as Oriental. When there is lightning to stop and look at storms, rumble and stillness. One has to know about desire and wants. One has to know about control and will.
One has to plunge into lakes and rivers
and like a deer taste water, salt and
sweet meadows. One has to walk beaches
and slowly jump or dive into the edge
of an ocean and then wade out into the deep.
To catch the Spirit - one was to walk
outside in the cool of evening and feel
the breeze and see leaves and needles shaking in the wind. One has to carefully look
at veins in leaves - to see them bud and see them crumble. One has to taste - really taste
and savor bread and wine - but while eating with each other - and talk about the taste, togetherness and communion. One needs to know the poets: Levertov, Oliver, Bishop, Berry, Hopkins, Haviz, Heaney. One has to read the great texts - memoirs - autobiographies, like the Confessions, the Seven Storey Mountain, the words of Rumi and the three Teresa’s - and so many others - to know Jesus’ words
- especially his parables, his sayings and his teachings,
as well as one’s own story. Write it all out chapter and verse. Then let all that be sorted and sifted out slowly in long early dawn walks or in deep prayer and cries and sometimes screams to God in the Dark Nights of our darkness - and sometimes in bright insights and Ah’s - on the street or on the bus.
