After Baptism, He Speaks

This one has to be read again, and again, for the meaning and beauty to unfold. To this reader, the reward is a unique take on the struggle to free an overabundant inner world, after having experienced life’s rites of passage and disappointment. The ego becomes its own church, of unripe bells perhaps and too much sleep, but in the monk’s cell a forest grows. The ego rejects it, perhaps rejects the density of its branches and ramifications, and the reader is left dreaming of a resolution, the ultimate realization that may come. The belief lingers outside, in wait.

Thank you, John. This poem will stay with me for a long time.

Fave!

"Outside stands a belief.
Inside the room grows smaller until
all that is left is a forest"

A wonderful moment. *

Beautiful work, John.

Agree...this is beautiful work. Thoughtful and elegant.*

This is moving. The opening lines come close to expressing the ineffable:

Today I am seventy-four soon seventy-six
years will have passed beneath my feet
unseen, too light a trickle
to wet the earth, nor a lyric either.

*

The world is full of dead dogs
and the words of muddy old men....

You really know how to hurt a guy, don't you?*

*

* A favorite, John. Worth several, if I could give them. This is excellent verse. And I agree with Sam's selected lines:

"Outside stands a belief.
Inside the room grows smaller until
all that is left is a forest"

strong. great closing...

Great poem, love the beginning lines especially and "the words of muddy old men." Fav

What a wonderful way of saying it! I'd like to believe that we have this beauty within us that can take life as it comes, use it, and shed it without reservations. Nice.

"...carry me over the arc
to where the last bells ripen,..." *

"Today I am seventy-four soon seventy-six
years will have passed beneath my feet
unseen, too light a trickle
to wet the earth, nor a lyric either."

I read this verse twice. *

quite beautiful.*

I'm the third one to passionately admire these lines:
Outside stands a belief.
Inside the room grows smaller until
all that is left is a forest
*

I admire the whole ending. The way you wrote this--the places this poem went--was wonderfully unpredictable.*

Thanks, everyone for the nice comments. I wasn't sure how this one would go over.

There are so many rich images in here, John. I really love it, and will come back again and again. The ending is beautifully put. Outside and inside. That forest is perfectly placed.

*

"More can be remembered than unloaded."
Great!

Great piece, John.

"The world is full of dead dogs
and the words of muddy old men."

striking, intelligent voice.

Thanks, Michelle & Bill & Steven & Tantra for your nice
words. They mean much to me.