The Path Leading out of the Heart

I hear so many, so many whispers

In my veins

I hear so many names, so many

At the edge of silence and seas

They circle perfectly

In a dance of blood

Holding hands with the stars,

Ever leaping on

Fluid music, incarnadine, relentless beat!

Cantillations! Cantillations!

Of the invocable, of the unseen

Secret of All

Men’s lives

That is beyond description.

This circle hymning everything

In which the names, the stars

Do not speak, do not say

Only sing

In whispers spinning

In the circle of blood that is

The violet doorway

Through starlight

Leaving themselves behind in whispers

Dancing with the liquid weight

Of names along the dusty path

Of their blood pulsing in the wind,

This soil of absolute mystery

In which I hear my footsteps

Moving of themselves beside theirs

Along the mute, empty paths of my body.

This flowing outline cut by the wind

Against the blackness of space

Bearing only the fallen signposts

Of fallen stars

Leading the way out of the heart

And the names, so many, so many

Stars in the sky, the fruit of wine

Overripe upon the long, dark vines of night

Plunging down their own secret route

Through veins

To the final ground of blood

Breaking apart atop the empty source

Seeding its own end

Upon the gnarled, ancient roots of the universe

Feeding the soil of all names

That have wed the earth

That have known the long path

Leading out of the heart

That have known the vow of

I do.

The vow of I Am.

The vow of I Will Be

Undone, finished, undone, never finished

Merely undressed, naked, divest

Like a lover’s dress tossed upon the limbs

Of the universe

In a midnight rendezvous

The faint rustling of a dress in the breeze

The faint, unmistakable rustlings of lovers

In the leaves, in the stars and vines

The faint, unmistakable rustlings

Of blood, of names

Straining to communicate, to reach out

To be known, but unable to speak

Unable to say who they are in the darkness,

In the darkness

In which lover’s lose their names

Upon this path leading out of the heart

I see in the darkness

I must travel light

I must travel more light

I see in the darkness

That if I am to go beyond here

I must travel light, and dance upon it.

I must leave my name behind

I must leave it behind

In a whisper

Which I sing.

LVX

JAL