(For Susannah)

Straight arrow answers are never so straight
Truth told for art's sake is false and unkind
Only in watching and seeing and listening
Only by hearing, the fragments unwind

Families of deer wheel in front of my window
Fauns on the leafpaths to some sylvan ritual
Out of these dreams come the truth we agree on
Seeming so concrete, the truths that we make

Now in the morning, the dew in the footprints
Deeper they wander, we lose them forever
Blind to the forces of nature that move us
Deaf to the music each atom is humming

Legions of songbirds descend in the trees
Tracing the paths of their ghostly ancestors
Eons uncounted with no one to hear them
Kept in our wombs we could hear all the same

Minutes till sunrise and hours till evening
Rabbits are gathering and laughter is leaving
I am the noontime that sleeps in the shadows
You are shadow that keeps me from burning

Buoyed by sunspikes I lifted my gaze
Rose from the kestrels that nested in raindrops
Straight until morning for hours unending
Leaving the picture to suss out the laughter

Time is religion to those who are dying
Love is the answer that brings out the living
I can hear whispers in forests around me
Far from the murder that grows in the cities

Time is a burden to those who are crying
I can see worlds on the head of a pin
Eating its tail no beginning no ending
Love is the answer that brings out the living

Solemn we seek out the forest enchantments
Fixing our senses and traveling together
Shadowless figures who travel in pairs
Robes lit by candles, a clearing at dawn

Straight is the arrow that seeks for my heart
Welcome the exit of incarnate strangers
Here is the halfway of heaven and kingdom
Witness the deer and the spinning of falcons

No rain that falls can extinguish your fire
Words cannot damage a heart that is lifted
Love is the answer that brings out the living
Straight is the arrow that loosens the shackles

Back to my room in middle of morning
Back to the sea where the seabirds are gathering
Paths that we wandered were only pretending
Back to the lifeforce we children have come.