If I ask a sign of the Tao,
and the Tao gives me a sign,
how do I decide whether to believe
it is indeed a sign from the Tao
or my own wishful imagination?
I cannot know
which is true.
I can only choose
which to believe is true.
My best choice is
to believe I shall see clearly.
Sweat Lodge
ReplyDeleteWind blusters into smoke
And drums out messages
From distant buttes to cloak
In cirrus desert sages.
The ash that spreads across
These plains its bitter taste
Has charred the coal to moss
And bones to toxic waste.
Ensconced within the heat,
Sweat blisters over eyes
Until the cactus peat
Assumes a dark disguise.
Hold tight now to that trust
In shaman and in trickster,
Or risk flaming into dust
Less willow than a whisper.
[Disposable Poem October 20, 2009]
Dr. Mike