We Are

It is enough 

that the breeze 

is cool 

and the mockingbird sings

its thirteen songs.

It is enough,

though Ted is dying

and Barbara 

as well as Nancy died suddenly,

that even so

I feel their love.

Not enough is the angry demand

That becomes too much

Like  the avalanche,

the overdose.

Even overjoyed lands hard

on the rocks of reality.

Enough pulls us back

From the the collapsing cliffs of our desires.

It is enough

that I walk a mile or two

with trees my kin, 

not merely branches and bones

but expressions of earth’s love

our roots and veins intertwined.

We want more 

as if the  balance

created by earth and ocean,

that knows what should flourish or fade

and times the seasons like a clock

Is not enough.

Oh, if only we knew,

If we could see

we are more, 

more

than enough.

ten billion years

The night
gathers our wishes
sent wistful
to shine as billions of hopes
in the black sky,
forming paths of light
from our longings.

What set stars ablaze
set us afire as well,
born, as we were,
in nebula nurseries.

Mother/father stars
draw upward our gaze,
we children
of planets grown full and massive,
dying yet deathless gaseous energy
we were released, transformed.
We have long forgotten
the super nova of numberless explosions,
how we floated on helium
to earth,
settling as electrified dust sparking, fiery
illuminating hope.

Earth, Isn’t This What You Want: a poem by Rainer Maria Rilke

Earth, isn’t this what you want? To arise in us, invisible?

Is it not your dream, to enter us so wholly

there’s nothing left outside us to see?

What, if not transformation

is your deepest purpose? Earth, my love,

I want it too.. Believe me,

no more of your springtimes are needed

to win me over—even one flower

is more than enough. Before I was named

I belonged to you. I see no other law

but yours, and know I can trust

the death you will bring.

See, I live. On what?

Childhood and future are equally present.

Sheer abundance of being

floods my heart.

from the Ninth Duino Elegy