from The Pitcher by Kabir

If you want the truth, I’ll tell you the truth:
Listen to the secret sound, the real sound, which is inside you.
The one no one talks of speaks the secret sound to himself,
and he is the one who has made it all.

translated by Robert Bly

on Easter Sunday in Aliağa, 2018

light a candle
today tonight every night
a ritual I learned
from my grandmother
and my Aunt Mary
who told me
to always light a candle
for those who have gone before
for those still here
every time I visit a church
and so I do
today tonight every night
here in the church
of my making
for those gone before
for those still here
on this day
of resurrection
amen

Hero by William Carlos Williams

Fool,
put your adventures
into those things
which break ships–
not female flesh.

Let there pass
over the mind
the waters of
four oceans, the airs
of four skies!

Return hollow-bellied
keen-eyed, hard!
A simple scar or two.

Little girls will come
bringing you
roses for your button-hole.