If loving God is the only pleasure,

how have I gone

so far afield

to seek you in every avenue

but Home.

How can I be so misguided?

How can I live

each day

strangling my fragile joys

in exchange for headaches

and deadlines,

guilt, pressures,

forgetting the unbounded

glory of love

with these paltry wanderings.

Where goest my heart now?

Gazing to another illusory delight.

Only nature is true

to me these days.

The wind and fierce cold,

the sky carrying

flagships of clouds.

The buttes singing

in their steadfast manifestness.

All that is truth.

My gaze need stray no more.

Myriads of seasons and joys

bring me to this sweet afternoon

where lilacs embrace me with the extravagance

of their perfume.

Such luxury.  A hundred thousand corollas

shine with their singular expression.

The softness of one,

joined in a chorus of scent

so profoundly moving.

I hear their chant

in my bones

and taste their nectar.

Thank you for this kiss of immortality

ever sweet,

every Spring,

your gift of love.

I hear the whistle

before I see it.

All bright yellow with flashy black wings

and scarlet head covering.

I bow to your glorious

beauty that honors the divine.

Your colors sing to my heart.

I feel the rising up of joy

until my spirit flies with you.

I am above the trees too

and coursing straight and true

to the vast embrace of the sky

with every sky-born atom

pulsing with your breath.

I can barely

bring myself to breathe in

this exquisite blessing.

I am so alive with joy

I can’t think

I can only praise

and give thanks.