Erige Cor Tuum Ad Me in Caelum

Lift up your thighs of white
blunder the eyes--
receive?
see granite curve and bend,
and turn into partner-granite
you don't deserve
baptismal bliss, but burn
superfluous idle hands
your spills that hide
acceptance of what eloquence provides?

lift up our eyes to you?
no, God, we stare and stare
upon a nearer thing
that greets us here,
Death, violent and near.

2 1235 north town and country road # 2217 orange california 92868

The alchemy and mystery is this,
no cross to kiss
but a cross pointing on a compass-face,
east, west, south, north;

the secret of the ages is revealed,
the book un-sealed,
the fisherman entangled in his nets
felled where he waded
for the evening catch,
the house-door
swinging on the broken latch,
the woman with her basket on the quay
shading her eyes to see
if the last boat
really is the last,
the house-dog lost
the little hen escaped,
the precious hay-rick scattered,
and the empty cage,
the book of life is open,
turn and read:

the linnet picking at the wasted see
is holy ghost,
the weed,
broken by iron axle
is the flower
magicians bartered for.