Vision at Sunset in the Oakland/Berkeley Hills

 

Like smoking thruribles pendulated 

By the ancient hands of patient priests,

Eucalyptus trees sway in the shifting fog, 

Wafting their incense of limbs and leaves 

Inside the church of hills.

Within the herd of flaming beams at sunset 

Goats feed on canticles of underbrush

Bleating, "Halleujah! Selah! Amen!",

The charisma of fiery winter clouds 

Enringing them in aureoles.

 

Moved by the scriptures of high winds,

The eucalyptus are etched by the hand of God upon the copper sky

And the Divine signatures of the boulevards and high-rises below,

A Passion stretched out on the crucifix

Of intersecting streets, their heavenly destination guaranteed,

Expand in the misty, theurgic distance

Of Divine Drama, salvaged.

Like probationers,

The hills and trees stand penitentially

In rigorous prayer and fasting, performing devotions,

Committed to the deliverance

Of their souls. 

 

All is Revealed.

 

The heavenly planes above

Are mere shadows of 

This world.

 

Balneum Mariae

 

Divine vapors steamily kiss the face

Of every amorous surface

From which God looks out upon you.

 

Surrounded in recurrences of water,

You are bathed in mysteries.

Sphinxes emerge from the mosaic

Of tiles swirling on the shower wall,

Encompassing you in the enigma 

Of your senses, riddling your mind

From nonage to senescence, night and day,

Their cordon extending along the avenue 

Of your mysterious destiny, 

And you bathe.... 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The nerves of body-mind opening at dawn,

Awakening to

The aura of white Egyptian roses 

Rising out of the desert, scattering their albescent sepals

In the rain that spills from your shower-head. 

And you sing, "O VITRIOL!" 

 "Visita Ineterioa Terrae Invenies Occultum Lapidem!"

Again, visit, visit

The interior

Of Earth

 

And purify, purify

Again, rectify and refine

That which is base within you and the world

And you will find

The Rock of Ages,

The Hidden Stone

That supports all Perfectly: 

The soul and body purified

In the Sea of Mary's Bath-

The Heat of Jesus

Nourished by Her Waters. 

Notes

Mariae Balneum, also known as Bain Marie, is a water bath or double boiler, a type of heated bath used in alchemy and to this day in science, industry and cooking to heat materials gently or to keep materials warm over a period of time. It literally means "Mary's Bath."

VITRIOL.  Visita Interiora Terrae Rectificando Invenies Occultum Lapidem: "Visit the Interior of the Earth and Rectify/Purify it to Find the Hidden Stone."   An alchemical motto.

 

 

 

A Knock at Your Door

On the other side

Stands an unknowable question.

 

You must answer it

Immediately.

To answer this door is to die.

To not answer it is to die.

What shall you do?

 

You must only go straight

To the door

And answer this question

Instantly

And not know the answer.

The present mind is of no use

To answer this question.

Neither is the past mind of use

Nor the future mind

To answer this unanswerable question. 

Which mind do you propose to use?

 

Baffled by everything

From the beginning,

The unknowable Question 

Meant absolutely nothing

And everything.

 

It’s only unknowable answer

Is giving one’s whole being to 

The One.

The Many.

The One and the Many.

Neither the One nor the Many.

 

 

 

 

Something at the Door

 

On the other side

Stands an unknowable question.