Explore the human conditionhttps://www.simplecommunion.com/https://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/passing/https://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/passing/In a high-sided dell the trail turns back on itself,held down by loose river rocks.I slow there, forced into procession by the earth walls and sliding stones. There’s a blackberry bush that welcomes all comers:tooth-bristled branches leaning green tongues outtoRead more…Tue, 28 Apr 2026 22:42:33 GMTPoeminspirationspringhttps://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/in-the-air/https://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/in-the-air/There is something in the air...Thu, 29 Jan 2026 20:32:57 GMTPoemhearthttps://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/script/https://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/script/This cannot be the dream I set out....Sun, 30 Nov 2025 08:48:57 GMTPoemdreamhttps://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/the-only-magic/https://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/the-only-magic/The only magic I have ever done…wasn’t a love potion or turning something into gold. It had nothing to do with bedknobs or carpet bags.The only magic I have done that matters was at my father’s deathbed. 3am phone voiceRead more…Mon, 29 Jan 2024 19:51:31 GMTPoemdarkDeathinspirationhttps://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/horse-and-rider/https://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/horse-and-rider/Horse and rider jump into the race disappearing together into everything right there, in plain sight – in front of all of us who struggle and doubt, unbelievable things are surging back and forth restless with their magnificence. Grab theRead more…Mon, 06 Nov 2023 17:28:24 GMTPoeminspirationLighthttps://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/in-the-middle-of-a-field/https://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/in-the-middle-of-a-field/Early there was no more sleep in me.Outside, the world was spinning potions of the short summer darkness into slow color:Grey bucks under a lamb grey sky stood among the river stones,tossing their antlers like crowns. A white crane satRead more…Fri, 26 May 2023 15:10:20 GMTPoemdrowningLightriverhttps://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/do-this/https://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/do-this/It was those few important degrees above ice as we raced through the wet forest this morning among the green aliens.The desiccated husks of anise had no sweetness for the sky.The river was too busy to look up, pushing hard,Read more…Tue, 04 Apr 2023 16:15:39 GMTPoemriverspringhttps://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/drawing-lines/https://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/drawing-lines/Morning draws a line down the middle of the river,On this side, the sun is touching my face like the skin of a lover the second before contactOn the other side, the river steams exuberance against the clean knife bladeRead more…Tue, 21 Mar 2023 14:31:45 GMTPoemmorningriverhttps://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/quiet-gloom/https://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/quiet-gloom/The quiet gloom is easing along the city streets, relieving the world of its obsession with color, drawing the dark out of every vine and limb. Rest, it murmurs with ice cold lips that feel warm to itself. The redwoodRead more…Mon, 27 Feb 2023 05:44:50 GMTPoemhttps://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/the-only-thing/https://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/the-only-thing/Time is a fire that burns through everything: The redwing blackbird, the blood moon, the ranch and its every lilac in the bush. Only the nether of everything remains. A hologram of every ending. Resilience is the only thing. (aRead more…Sat, 12 Nov 2022 00:58:41 GMTPoemhttps://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/carmine/https://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/carmine/Morning dresses slowlyWhich lights up the skyWrapping a carmine scarf around the neck of dawnThe oaks shrug off the light and shrink in under their blanketsFor one last dream of walking.The river takes all the paleness spilling over the world,SpreadsRead more…Sat, 12 Nov 2022 00:56:02 GMTPoemhttps://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/death-poem/https://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/death-poem/Bent over his lap,he was a samurai. Nothing deferred him from his work.The hot sun layers down red lacquer on his neck.The late spring foxtails scratched the soft skinof his lower back where the shirt rode up.On the other sideRead more…Mon, 10 May 2021 22:31:18 GMTPoemdarkspringhttps://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/lace-wing-disaster/https://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/lace-wing-disaster/A thousand lacewings caress the bare black skin of the river. Overhead, the last fat cruisers of spring’s rain steam across the ocean of sky toward a crash in the mountains that will exhaust them deliciously and have no name.Read more…Tue, 27 Apr 2021 17:13:05 GMTPoemdarknaturespringhttps://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/a-dad-coffee-story/https://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/a-dad-coffee-story/Dad’s coffee maker at his little corner shack in Redondo used to be white. It was that kind of 80’s-era plastic like old electric plug covers that turns yellow with time.By the time he walked into the spare bedroom inRead more…Sat, 20 Mar 2021 19:36:38 GMTRamblingshttps://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/time-for/https://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/time-for/The ocean is a whisper gone mad. Each of us hears our own voice, but ignores it. The saccharine sussuruss of the moron ocean enthralled us. What if the privacy we are obsessed with is a lie? What if theRead more…Mon, 30 Dec 2019 16:11:23 GMTPoemhttps://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/she-sat/https://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/she-sat/The soft grey blanket of the pacific lay like kindness over the basin. On the ledge of the shore just before the precipitous flattening of the failing surf she caught me: her straight back, hands together in front of heart,Read more…Sat, 07 Jul 2018 22:56:34 GMTPoemhttps://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/winter-2017/https://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/winter-2017/We are getting older. Leaves are still falling. Oaks with their thousand years cut short lie in pieces in the field, replacing gold and green with grey. The roses curl their leaves in on themselves, and their hips are theRead more…Thu, 21 Dec 2017 19:12:13 GMTPoemwinterhttps://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/right-now/https://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/right-now/Even now the lake is smoothing its face to see the first stars bursting out of the indigo sky  The sun’s luxurious red hair trails on the far hills who have already gone black with sleep.  Armed with only theirRead more…Mon, 22 Jun 2015 20:49:56 GMTPoemhttps://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/the-message-is/https://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/the-message-is/The River of Life is Salt: buoys you up no problem with tears and sweat stings like a fuck when you get hurt. The Salt is singing. Sometimes, you are not listening. Sometimes, the message is silence. Sometimes the messageRead more…Tue, 10 Mar 2015 22:26:54 GMTPoemlifesalthttps://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/grinding-her-teeth/https://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/grinding-her-teeth/The Goddess of Flowers is grinding her teeth. Softly luminous, tethered to a million fetal pieces of spring She is clenching her fists. Birth pains ~ maybe. And a hatred of the bare, twisted branches she is trying not toRead more…Tue, 10 Mar 2015 21:24:53 GMTPoemprocessspringwinterhttps://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/rags/https://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/rags/The Empress in her rags on the packed-earth path up the snow-covered mountain stops without a plan turns from the gray shale slopes. Below is the green world and cities that are her inheritance. She notices for the first timeRead more…Sun, 08 Mar 2015 23:12:45 GMTPoempathreliefhttps://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/horse/https://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/horse/Horse and rider jump – into traffic into water in between the lanes disappearing into everything right there in front of all of us who live and doubt God is surging back and forth restive with his magnificence between yourRead more…Sun, 08 Mar 2015 23:04:38 GMTPoeminspirationhttps://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/a-river-moving-by-rumi/https://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/a-river-moving-by-rumi/When you do things from your soul you feel a river moving in you, a joy. When actions come from another section, the feeling disappears. Don’t let others lead you. They may be blind or, worse, vultures. Reach for theRead more…Sat, 25 Oct 2014 17:40:12 GMTFaveshttps://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/come-to-hiroshima-by-ron-hertz/https://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/come-to-hiroshima-by-ron-hertz/Come to Hiroshima to those who with no shame condone annihilation of whole cities or nations please come to Hiroshima come in early August when the heat is worst make sure you’re there on the sixth when the sweat runningRead more…Wed, 06 Aug 2014 16:04:49 GMTFavesdarkinspirationlosshttps://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/fingers/https://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/fingers/Fumbling for the door knob like a drunk with numb fingers with a drunk’s forgetful patience taking so long to realize there’s a blindfold problem… and after that the hall is still dark the door is just a broken closetRead more…Wed, 16 Jul 2014 16:50:03 GMTPoemhttps://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/hands/https://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/hands/Don’t you think it’s like our 2 hands this inner life and that outer life? Look down at them – the way they cooperate but differently nearly the same, but with inseparable dexter and sinistry. The outer life is aRead more…Thu, 29 May 2014 19:27:16 GMTPoemhttps://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/first-morning-of-the-world-by-zachary-horvitz/https://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/first-morning-of-the-world-by-zachary-horvitz/On the first morning of the world God gave himself a gift — an anonymous gift called wakefulness. He didn’t ask for anything. He didn’t ask for it. Like all gifts it was terrible. Imagine the burden of stars. ImagineRead more…Mon, 31 Mar 2014 20:04:25 GMTFaveshttps://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/why-does-yes-have-so-much-no-in-it/https://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/why-does-yes-have-so-much-no-in-it/I watched a woman online go through a year of “yes”; saying yes to every invitation she got to do something (reasonable/moral/legal) for an entire year. She reported the exhilaration of it, and the exhilaration of being done. I draggedRead more…Mon, 13 Jan 2014 00:25:31 GMTRamblingsselftimehttps://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/spanish-ballad-by-tony-hoagland/https://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/spanish-ballad-by-tony-hoagland/That barista, Mother, with the dark-roast eyes and the silver nail through her left eyebrow, who pulls the handle of the espresso machine with such imperial ennui – Mom, does she not know that she is killing me? I haveRead more…Thu, 09 Jan 2014 20:52:15 GMTFaveshttps://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/837/https://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/837/The Tao asks: How can you live with the constant noise of traffic? What kind of question is that? Have you ever been in an uncharted cave, say, or in a simple blond A frame in the crotch of theRead more…Thu, 02 Jan 2014 05:04:01 GMTPoemidentityinspirationLighthttps://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/a-blessing-for-the-new-year-by-john-odonohue/https://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/a-blessing-for-the-new-year-by-john-odonohue/Beannacht On the day when the weight deadens on your shoulders and you stumble, may the clay dance to balance you. And when your eyes freeze behind the grey window and the ghost of loss gets in to you, mayRead more…Wed, 01 Jan 2014 16:55:36 GMTFavesPoemhttps://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/whenever-he-looks-at-you-st-thomas-quinas/https://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/whenever-he-looks-at-you-st-thomas-quinas/God sees nothing in us that He has not given. Everything is empty until He places what He wishes into it. The soul is like an uninhabited world that comes to life only when God lays His head against us.Read more…Fri, 29 Nov 2013 05:08:18 GMTFavesPoemhttps://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/have-you-ever/https://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/have-you-ever/find yourself longing for the rain? not thinking, “oh, wouldn’t it be nice if I could look out….” but actually with your body like that old hunger for sex wanting, like the lavender drooping in the pot aching for theRead more…Thu, 31 Oct 2013 16:08:02 GMTPoemhttps://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/spent-enough-time/https://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/spent-enough-time/Even the city is nervous high tension wires run between all the rigid structures shoulders hunched high even in the stuttering sunshine of changing seasons. Who are we, infinitessimal creatures made of weft and fragile cables to be different? WhoRead more…Fri, 25 Oct 2013 01:19:59 GMTPoemLightrelationshipselfhttps://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/the-one-thing-you-must-do-rumi/https://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/the-one-thing-you-must-do-rumi/There is one thing in this world you must never forget to do. If you forget everything else and not this, there’s nothing to worry about, but if you remember everything else and forget this, then you will have doneRead more…Fri, 16 Aug 2013 20:10:48 GMTFavesinspirationPurposehttps://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/instructions-for-overachievers-icarus/https://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/instructions-for-overachievers-icarus/When flying the wings do not hold up the sky They push on the fallen shadow until it becomes small and the earth curves A delicious hanging from heaven. How else could it work?Sun, 21 Jul 2013 13:48:37 GMTPoeminspirationLightworkaholichttps://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/only/https://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/only/Only while doing do we grasp you Just in the labor of our hands you take shape Thoughts are ghosts driving us out of the glorious world. Each mind is fabricating itself We feel the edge when the scissors fallRead more…Thu, 23 May 2013 22:48:17 GMTPoeminspirationselfhttps://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/the-2-lives/https://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/the-2-lives/Don’t you think it’s like our 2 hands, the inner life and the outer? Just look… at your hands, almost the same with different capacities lines, but different lines. In the outer life, I am a squirrel, Busy, frantic, obsessedRead more…Thu, 23 May 2013 00:55:58 GMTPoemhttps://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/empath-intro/https://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/empath-intro/I wanted to bring the sexy down just a little and clear up what was happening, while still giving a fun tantalizing. Listen to Pól read the intro He was breathing hard from the Pilates routine. There was no ReformerRead more…Thu, 09 May 2013 01:46:07 GMTBook SampleEmpathhttps://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/preface-to-empath/https://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/preface-to-empath/I wanted to give a context and some lure and some jazz to the beginning of the story, so I added a glimpse of the non-happy ending of Empath to the Preface: Listen to Pól read the preface My nameRead more…Thu, 09 May 2013 00:59:47 GMTBook SampleEmpathhttps://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/pelican/https://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/pelican/The waves on the thin water of the bay are white speedboats, zooming, zooming in. The little sandpipers ducking and bobbing and tweeting their handmaiden dances under the watchful eye of their skylark guards, broad-winged and sharp. Just one pelican,Read more…Thu, 02 May 2013 18:25:51 GMTPoemhttps://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/brothers-grimm-backward/https://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/brothers-grimm-backward/what if this 9-5 life is the fairy tale? what if I arrive home and my dog who loves me only slightly less than the ball, shows no interest in my scent? if there is someone else in my houseRead more…Sat, 29 Dec 2012 19:42:32 GMTPoemDeathLighthttps://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/wait-people-live-here/https://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/wait-people-live-here/Maybe you’ve been up in the remote Rockies where the air straight overhead is a deep ocean blue, and the thin extremity veins of the roads peter out at rock formations that point roundly at the mountains as if toRead more…Fri, 14 Dec 2012 12:58:49 GMTTravelBhutanhttps://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/one-of-the-cities-of-gold-is-in-asia/https://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/one-of-the-cities-of-gold-is-in-asia/A river winds through it, wide, slow waters churned by constant traffic. > The water is downhill and someone shook the city so that all the gilt glass blocks of the buildings tumbled to its edge. And originally I wasRead more…Thu, 06 Dec 2012 02:57:31 GMTTravelTravelhttps://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/how-many-boroughs-in-london/https://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/how-many-boroughs-in-london/Staying in central London sounds like a fab idea. One short walk to the venue where we are offering the training. All the fab delights of modern london. A couple miles to old London (look, kids, Big Ben, Houses ofRead more…Tue, 13 Nov 2012 08:48:24 GMTTravelLondonphilosophyhttps://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/schism/https://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/schism/In Aristotle’s Nichomachean ethics, he says virtues don’t exist as opposites to vices, but among them, in the strain between them. Bravery, for example, is not in the absence of fear, but inside the tension between fear and rage. TemperanceRead more…Sat, 29 Sep 2012 20:02:59 GMTRamblingsItalyphilosophyhttps://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/a-race/https://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/a-race/The rumpled folds of the middle of Italy. An undisclosed hour in the night. The thick shutters are locked back against the villa. The big-paned windows, slightly wavy with their slow, liquid sink through time, invite the racing wind intoRead more…Fri, 28 Sep 2012 08:06:59 GMTTravelhttps://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/a-treatise-on-tight-pants-and-headrests/https://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/a-treatise-on-tight-pants-and-headrests/Rick Steve is a real person, apparently, and he writes guidebooks. He rocks. He doesn’t send you to dives, like LP does sometimes. He urges you to be a reasonable traveler, and not to be quite as American as youRead more…Wed, 26 Sep 2012 12:18:00 GMTTraveldarkItalyRomehttps://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/breaking-international-law-by-accident-officer/https://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/breaking-international-law-by-accident-officer/I appreciate the way all trips abroad are Pilgrimage. We rise long before dawn. We pack what is precious. We go via unpredictable means to strange places where even the smells are familiar but strange. Nihil sub sole novum. There’sRead more…Tue, 25 Sep 2012 19:17:58 GMTTravelarrivalItalyRomehttps://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/alcatraz/https://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/alcatraz/The lesson is as simple as this: the carving knife needs to dull itself on the flashing armor of the fish belly. If the garden were its own order, if the weedy fields were what was wanted, we would stillRead more…Tue, 25 Sep 2012 00:55:31 GMTPoemhttps://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/the-sun-rose-this-morning/https://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/the-sun-rose-this-morning/The sun rose this morning at 3:14 Everyone was quite surprised. The lavender was caught near the wisteria with its pants down. The lemon was so astonished, given how slavish he is to schedules, that he burst immediately and allRead more…Mon, 24 Sep 2012 14:52:51 GMTPoemdarkfamilyrelationshiphttps://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/pomegranates-on-fire/https://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/pomegranates-on-fire/I wonder if they pack the wicker ribs of the burning man with Persephone’s gems, sweet, sweating, burning, bursting as the fire comes. Like even the black tarmack does when Pele’s blood creeps, unstoppable intensity, to the sea. Everything isRead more…Mon, 24 Sep 2012 14:48:43 GMTPoeminspirationLightlitanyreleasehttps://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/my-heart-is-a-bookstore/https://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/my-heart-is-a-bookstore/My heart is a bookstore. Full of stories, and the promises of the wide world. But less and less visited. Something has moved on. My mind has a digital heart that is easily accessible, but that cannot be touched. WillRead more…Mon, 24 Sep 2012 14:46:13 GMTPoemdarkheartphilosophyrelationshiphttps://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/june-itself-announcing/https://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/june-itself-announcing/What do you want to be when you grow up? And the answers for a large pink boy were: fireman, policeman, truck driver. I wanted to be the papier-mâché bank I could never quite finish, to hold the vanishing treasureRead more…Mon, 24 Sep 2012 14:36:45 GMTPoemphilosophyrelationshipselfhttps://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/dangling-jellyfish-headlights/https://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/dangling-jellyfish-headlights/When I was 20, I read a book about chakras and imagined them as different car headlights hung inside my body their electrical connections dangling, like jellyfish, out my back, where no one could see. I had my arms aroundRead more…Fri, 24 Aug 2012 16:19:24 GMTPoemdarkrelationshiphttps://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/up-from-the-cracks/https://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/up-from-the-cracks/Life comes up from the cracks out of the asses of birds from flood and fire oaks soaked and blackened before they open one soft green finger to taste the world. Mustard bursts out of the bleak earth. If theRead more…Tue, 05 Jun 2012 02:40:08 GMTPoemhttps://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/for-the-first-time/https://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/for-the-first-time/for the first time with night falling with a dead thank-you on the ground, its feet still kicking my lips, it hits me like hot wind from the late train. I do have faith. Long-abandoned under hot classroom lights, pinnedRead more…Tue, 15 May 2012 20:27:16 GMTPoemfeaturedinspirationLighthttps://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/the-fox-by-mary-oliver/https://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/the-fox-by-mary-oliver/All night under the pines The fox moves through the darkness With a mouth full of teeth and a reputation For death which it deserves. In the spicy Villages of the mice He is famous His nose in the grassRead more…Tue, 15 May 2012 20:24:45 GMTFaveshttps://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/in-impossible-darkness/https://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/in-impossible-darkness/Do you know how the caterpillar turns? Do you remember what happens inside a cocoon? You liquefy. There in the thick black of your self-spun womb, void as the moon before waxing, you melt (as Christ did for three daysRead more…Tue, 15 May 2012 04:05:12 GMTFaveshttps://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/the-chef/https://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/the-chef/Cooking for many years but never achieving the notoriety he deserved, the chef branched out with difficult, exotic, foreign delicacies. This brought some small fame, and a flock of culinary thrill-seekers, who are always leaving. On his one day ofRead more…Tue, 01 May 2012 19:35:05 GMTPoemStoryhttps://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/what-were-you-going-to-ask/https://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/what-were-you-going-to-ask/What were you going to ask me moments ago when I went to tell you that the tea was ready and I blurted into the suddenly-still room where your mother’s doilies have taken station and your roommate’s dusty floor projectRead more…Mon, 09 Apr 2012 16:18:19 GMTPoemgayrelationshiphttps://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/caution-is-the-left-hand-of-darkness/https://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/caution-is-the-left-hand-of-darkness/Caution is the left hand of darkness, flashing, muted movie-house black where he slid naked fingers across vibrating leg hairs to touch the hot flesh inside my shorts. He who could not, would not, ride on my back at theRead more…Fri, 06 Apr 2012 00:28:56 GMTPoemrelationshipsexualityhttps://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/enough-dreadful-nostalgia/https://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/enough-dreadful-nostalgia/Will the secrets of the body, the pleasure, the pain, move on like night ferries abandoned by modernity, like ghosts indistinguishable from the sea mist so that you can look back fondly and miss them? Isn’t there enough dreadful nostalgiaRead more…Thu, 05 Apr 2012 16:03:40 GMTPoemdarksexualityhttps://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/we-used-to-live-in-the-shoals/https://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/we-used-to-live-in-the-shoals/We used to live in the shoals of time where the spread of life before us sparkled and spread out into an azure forever. We’re spread out, now, like oil on the well like the popping white sea foam LikeRead more…Mon, 26 Mar 2012 07:03:13 GMTPoemLighttimehttps://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/i-blame-odysseus/https://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/i-blame-odysseus/Houses of the adoration of the night, give your keys into this one’s keeping. Open your libraries and salons within this being. There may need to be a room to house the great heart as it begins this journey ofRead more…Fri, 23 Mar 2012 16:31:46 GMTPoemLightTemplehttps://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/dogs-in-the-elephant-village-audio/https://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/dogs-in-the-elephant-village-audio/Just wanted to post an audio version of my poem from Thailand, Dogs in the Elephant Village. My Dawgs in the elephant village (click pic to hear audio) MP3 Audio: Dogs in the Elephant VillageMon, 13 Feb 2012 20:10:30 GMTAudiohttps://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/nothing-to-miss/https://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/nothing-to-miss/3:30 am. Groggy but wide awake. Lurching or drifting out of sleep into the hard-edged silence of the dying hour. Maybe you are an Iyengar vegan, maybe you have the unicorn job we that provides lots of money, no stress,Read more…Fri, 10 Feb 2012 23:28:54 GMTRamblingsdarkLightsleephttps://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/in-an-effort-to-be-political/https://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/in-an-effort-to-be-political/I want to support the public discourse about Santorum. Taking care with anal sex is important. For us all. The politican… I can’t imagine him being important to a wider discourse except as a note on hate speech.Mon, 06 Feb 2012 05:17:30 GMTUncategorizedpoliticssexualityhttps://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/the-age-of-doing/https://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/the-age-of-doing/Sent this in a postcard to myself from Thailand. Thanks, Jami Sieber! 2012 is on us. The age of doing is over. Are you worshipping the past? Are you building fires toward illimitable being and wearing them out like aRead more…Sat, 28 Jan 2012 07:02:45 GMTPoeminspirationhttps://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/why-the-mina-birds-sing/https://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/why-the-mina-birds-sing/The Suan Doi Guest House in Chiang Mai is a tropical paradise inside the urban riot of Thailand’s second city. Its spirit houses – outside and inside the property – are grand affairs befitting the jungle courtyard inside. Enormous urnsRead more…Tue, 24 Jan 2012 16:35:39 GMTTravelThailandhttps://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/on-the-universality-of-morning-doves/https://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/on-the-universality-of-morning-doves/They’re here. Every morning, hidden away in the sparse jungle remnants around the condos. “hoohoo hoo”, they seem to be asking, and answering, “roo rooroo”. They’re not the smartest creatures, honestly. We had them in Ojai, and for some reasonRead more…Mon, 23 Jan 2012 03:32:32 GMTTravelThailandwritinghttps://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/inappropriate-foot/https://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/inappropriate-foot/Every bodywork experience exists on a continuum somewhere between: 0 – Radioactive No-No Square (your bathing suit zones and nearby regions are strictly quarantined) …and… 10 – Happy Ending (rarely actually happy for anyone) Isaac Newton’s 3rd Law of MotionRead more…Sun, 22 Jan 2012 15:52:13 GMTTravelThailandhttps://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/indian-at-the-world-fair/https://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/indian-at-the-world-fair/It was common practice at the World Fair each year in England to bring natives – often whole family groups – from around the empire to live their daily lives, to exhibit themselves, for the edification and education of theRead more…Wed, 18 Jan 2012 04:38:14 GMTTravelalienationThailandhttps://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/my-elephant-wants-to-send-me-on-the-short-bus/https://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/my-elephant-wants-to-send-me-on-the-short-bus/The second day we walk out to the forest at 6.30 with the sun climbing the mountains behind the jungle. The couple mahouts that set out with us are jaunty, easy, and of course, tiny. Tiem, who is responsible forRead more…Tue, 17 Jan 2012 02:18:01 GMTTravelElephantThailandhttps://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/a-10-foot-golden-fire/https://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/a-10-foot-golden-fire/Immensity of Thai Buddha, coated in gold, crown of fire lit by spot, jeweled coat burning 2 men high. All I see is the platform, its velvet space in the shape of a meditating man, bordered in soft color, twoRead more…Tue, 17 Jan 2012 01:59:33 GMTPoemBuddhismreligionThailandhttps://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/dogs-in-the-elephant-village/https://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/dogs-in-the-elephant-village/Every one of us, a dog in the elephant village. Eager to go, to be of use, to be part of the mysterious indigo and grey movements of the day. We scrabble with each other. We lie in the brightRead more…Tue, 17 Jan 2012 01:56:11 GMTPoemElephantfamilyThailandhttps://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/thailand-fat-camp/https://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/thailand-fat-camp/A head 9 feet off the ground, weighing in between 3500 and 4000 kg (which for the English Imperial Measurement victims in the audience, that’s approximately 4.4 tons), your instructor only speaks Thai, has a neck wider than your waist,Read more…Sun, 15 Jan 2012 01:11:20 GMTTravelThailandhttps://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/wat-phra-that-lampang-luang/https://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/wat-phra-that-lampang-luang/Say that 10 times fast! A long, quiet morning at The Riverside guest house in Lampang. It’s actually beside the river Ping (which also runs through Chiang Mai). The brown expanse of the river, bounded by concrete in a weirdlyRead more…Tue, 10 Jan 2012 00:14:37 GMTTravelThailandhttps://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/si-satchalanai/https://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/si-satchalanai/Off to the ruins at Si Satchalanai. Slightly less ancient and rickety fixed-gear bicycles. Thai guards on a quiet day deeply amused by a gaggle of brightly-colored white people careening through the checkpoint, waving colored tickets. On one side ofRead more…Tue, 10 Jan 2012 00:02:32 GMTTravelThailandhttps://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/sukothai-old-and-new/https://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/sukothai-old-and-new/New Sukothai is a throbbing, lively place, crushed up against the Yom (?) river. Our guest house compound is Lotus Village. Teak outhouses, a pond with a fountain, ancient-seeming buildings of dark, dark wood, shining in the evening light, carvedRead more…Mon, 09 Jan 2012 03:20:48 GMTTravelTempleThialandhttps://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/bles-boone-lott-elephant-sanctuary/https://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/bles-boone-lott-elephant-sanctuary/I’m not sure what makes the mountains of Thailand. The way they press suddenly up out of the plains, covered in jungle, mounded, broken but unassailably beautiful. The rice paddies are a kind of green to make Ireland sit upRead more…Mon, 09 Jan 2012 03:09:24 GMTTravelLightThialandhttps://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/fae-asian-elephant-hospital/https://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/fae-asian-elephant-hospital/Bumping and jostling on roads as wild and bumpy as an elephant’s hide, we arrived in the heat of morning at the Asian Elephant hospital, captained by the redoubtable Dr. Soraida. Sickly her whole life, she had a sympathy withRead more…Mon, 09 Jan 2012 02:45:44 GMTTravelElephantThailandTravelhttps://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/doi-southep-chiang-mai-mountain-splendor/https://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/doi-southep-chiang-mai-mountain-splendor/A singular long avenue in a city that rambles as maybe inner Los Angeles rambles – in dizzying profusion and seemingly without order. Long lovely zigzag road through the sudden jungle and up, up, up with the van swinging andRead more…Sat, 07 Jan 2012 10:17:52 GMTTravelThailandhttps://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/buddhas-buddhas-everywhere-but-i-miss-jesus/https://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/buddhas-buddhas-everywhere-but-i-miss-jesus/I found a Thai guide. Male, of course, and sexy, obviously, and volunteer. And an artist and speaks 3 languages and has a degree and an international portfolio, but is he really hot enough? Injuries are honesty avoided, but foundRead more…Tue, 03 Jan 2012 11:00:58 GMTTraveldarksexualityThailandhttps://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/thailand/https://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/thailand/Unexpected flight change. Communication so bad Mercury isn’t in retrograde, I’m pretty sure the Winged Messenger going backward in time. SFO Southwest greeters cheerfully announce weather-delayed flights. The miracle of BART. 11-hour layover in Incheon airport in Seoul. The surprisingRead more…Tue, 03 Jan 2012 10:47:38 GMTTravelarrivalThailandhttps://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/this-is-about-you/https://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/this-is-about-you/Give up what you’ve done. Change the sky. Throw things away! Give up the what’s gone before. This is about you. Stop being someone else. Love god, who is here all day, has not left, cannot take a bus toRead more…Tue, 29 Nov 2011 00:46:58 GMTPoemguidancelitanyrantsurrenderhttps://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/what-are-you-waiting-for/https://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/what-are-you-waiting-for/Too-close buzz, steel-shod electric clippers pulling off the hair. Bumblebees in their striped jackets, cousins of hummingbirds, not gliding but fired over nectar or beauty, fierce darts of the sky, spun from sugar, like my plans, inferred from the unseenRead more…Tue, 29 Nov 2011 00:43:57 GMTPoeminspirationLightnaturehttps://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/do-not-cling-to-hard-labors/https://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/do-not-cling-to-hard-labors/I touched it, in the quiet when I made myself, for 3 continuous seconds, focus on what has been so good. It’s got me now. Like the tar baby. The more I pull back from this great pulsation behind things,Read more…Tue, 29 Nov 2011 00:23:37 GMTPoeminspirationLighthttps://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/no-longer-writing/https://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/no-longer-writing/In the late pull of afternoon watered down by autumn coming something is wrong. The crack that has been growing through the plaster over the low quiet summer has begun, as I can’t, to weep. Approaching fingers catch a deepRead more…Tue, 29 Nov 2011 00:17:02 GMTPoeminspirationLighthttps://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/sea-change/https://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/sea-change/Four months into my wandering, I’ve darted out of California and back a couple times, but mostly enjoying summer in the Golden State: beaches, the Sequoias, good friends, lakes, rivers. Getting ready to leave Northern California for the great swingRead more…Fri, 23 Sep 2011 20:25:20 GMTTraveljobhttps://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/this-is-how/https://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/this-is-how/Late night notes made over coffee, abandoned in public places music relegated to the hollow imagination truths about the self buried in work. This is how we die. Not the passing on of the body to become the world butRead more…Tue, 20 Sep 2011 21:08:44 GMTPoemhttps://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/an-open-letter-to-the-state-parks-of-california/https://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/an-open-letter-to-the-state-parks-of-california/Dear California, I’m writing to let you know that my dog is not a terrorist. And in general, dogs do not have sufficient umbrage or concentration to be terrorists. “Dogs shall be kept on a leash no longer than 6Read more…Sun, 18 Sep 2011 03:27:45 GMTTravelpoliticalhttps://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/unending-ponderosa/https://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/unending-ponderosa/The long volcanic slopes of the Trinity mountains all running down and away from their bare father, Mt. Shasta. The Swedes stopped too too soon in the Dakotas. These endless pines were waiting quietly for them.Sun, 18 Sep 2011 03:27:27 GMTTravelhttps://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/the-great-escape/https://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/the-great-escape/The slopes of Mt. Shasta soared distinctively above us. No one had let the mountain know that it was September, and long exclamation points of snow marked the only slopes in sight not crowded with pines. I was visiting aRead more…Fri, 16 Sep 2011 02:22:02 GMTTravelMt. ShastaZeushttps://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/teaching-of-absurdist-comedy/https://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/teaching-of-absurdist-comedy/It’s Sunday morning in Oakland, about 9. As I left Derek’s apartment, he looked at my badly arranged overnight bag (and my computer bag and my day sling bag) and said, “that’s a lot of stuff”. I shrugged. I’m bigRead more…Mon, 15 Aug 2011 01:21:56 GMTTravelcomedydarkdeparturejobhttps://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/leaving-folsom-ca/https://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/leaving-folsom-ca/The old town sits quietly quaint above the brick powerstation museum and the cold dark of the American River where it runs out of narrow canyons below the Folsom Lake Dam – and, surprisingly, below the part of the riverRead more…Mon, 08 Aug 2011 04:41:16 GMTTravelhttps://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/bounded/https://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/bounded/The breadth of one day bounded by water like in a spell. Sweet breath of anise in the almost-cool morning,dawn coming so early to wipe the spilled stars a startled buck jumping and kicking down the main road the granite bouldersRead more…Mon, 08 Aug 2011 04:33:14 GMTPoemhttps://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/untraceable-ferocity/https://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/untraceable-ferocity/Sky and sulphur, winter sun in May.If you return here again and think exactly the same thoughtsit will be new. If you memorize all the dances and take each step like an executive of motion, it would be freeing.Whatever youRead more…Thu, 14 Jul 2011 18:17:39 GMTPoemdivineinspirationselfhttps://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/it-is-enough/https://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/it-is-enough/Tomorrow is the shadow of glass towers. Breathe the way into morning, one lifting filling including earth fire, the robin throat sky, flesh-pale elm roots, the sheltering hills. Enough. Sell your ideas of yourself at bargain prices. Take up yourRead more…Thu, 14 Jul 2011 17:53:53 GMTPoeminspirationLighthttps://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/hopeful/https://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/hopeful/I came to explore the wreckbut the ocean had gotten there firstsand dozers and bilge filling tendrils of the surf had been at the behest ofhigh-hat waves,seagulls worrying over something in thekelp I did not want to see.There were theRead more…Mon, 11 Jul 2011 18:16:17 GMTPoeminspirationhttps://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/remember-this-is-the-one/https://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/remember-this-is-the-one/In the night when you pray in secret to be unmoved by the tides of suffering,when you mutter, “Lord, make my heart a stone” Remember. This is the one who invented babies teething, puberty,who gave us marriage so we wouldRead more…Mon, 11 Jul 2011 17:18:45 GMTPoemdarkinspirationselfhttps://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/secret-documents-2/https://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/secret-documents-2/The Letter’s arrived and they’re asking you – come to serve as a secret agent? Everything has to seem the same Mornings and driving and buying things that no one needs, But when you’re in the store, You will beRead more…Sun, 10 Jul 2011 17:38:41 GMTPoeminspirationselfhttps://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/rejoice/https://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/rejoice/Take up the leavings of a life.Say “thank you” in a clear voice.Bow to the unseen face of the training place –garden, ocean, dojo, cathedral, street corner,overflowing gutters of disappointment.Take up the friendships, the San Andreas pressures,the fragile desires, theRead more…Fri, 08 Jul 2011 16:51:01 GMTPoemdarkinspirationpracticeselfhttps://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/what-if-they-did/https://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/what-if-they-did/Who decided what jobs we would get? Was there a vote or was it done by lottery? Did the oligarchy or the plutocracy of beforehand have its usual effect? Did old souls get to pay $10 more for first seatsRead more…Fri, 08 Jul 2011 16:45:45 GMTPoeminspirationrelationshipselfhttps://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/the-time-of-ramen/https://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/the-time-of-ramen/Swirling pennants raised in celebrations no one understands.Patterned silks embroidered with elegant nonsense,characters from an uninvented language.Signifying without meaning,distinction without difference,heralds of cancer or cure,signals of madness advancing and retreating,finding fisherman on the rocks,well-intentioned speakers out of their depths.Maybe theRead more…Fri, 08 Jul 2011 16:25:58 GMTPoemdarktimehttps://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/as-yet-unspoken/https://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/as-yet-unspoken/Round river stone a Pleistocene cannonball.Slender-fronded fern, diminished but identical tothe 3-story trees that shaded the dinosaurs,tight-fisted palm a thousand miles fromthe desert, thrusting high and comfortable in the company of grass. Unwitting, we participate in a vast, silentinheritance ofRead more…Fri, 08 Jul 2011 15:56:00 GMTPoemhistoryinspirationtimehttps://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/what-i-did-not-do/https://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/what-i-did-not-do/I did not move back to Ireland, get involved in politics, buy and remodel a terminally quaint house, and rename it something Celtic, seeding the yard with guard geese.I did not take a job out of college making 90 grandRead more…Thu, 07 Jul 2011 18:29:16 GMTPoemlitanyselfhttps://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/i-want-you-want/https://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/i-want-you-want/We are in York – old and newcity wall a thousand years older than my countryI want maps and phone-ahead bedsand Zagat ratings that say nothing condescendingly“American” You want ghost tours led byfake-accent Dickens castoffsand Yorkshire pudding with“Real American Chili”.YouRead more…Thu, 07 Jul 2011 18:14:42 GMTPoemrelationshipsexualityhttps://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/the-inevitable-molestation-drama-2/https://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/the-inevitable-molestation-drama-2/Clear afternoon and no one on the road.Not 3 am abandoned,occupied like a teenager in chemistry.Like when Jimmy-my-lab-partnerhugged me so fiercely at the end blue eyes hidden in my shoulderas much wanting in my flesh asblackberries among the brambles. TheRead more…Thu, 07 Jul 2011 17:52:05 GMTPoemfamilymolestationhttps://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/wandered-out-of-topic/https://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/wandered-out-of-topic/I’ve done it again – wandered abruptly into or out of topic like the summer wanders out of seasonand my 39th year wandered into difficulty and scarcity and a serious kind of non-fun.Is it always in the rearview that weRead more…Thu, 07 Jul 2011 17:14:36 GMTPoemhttps://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/the-profit-of-time/https://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/the-profit-of-time/“I learned nothing was safe or certain – least of all desire”She moaned from 6 feet and 50 years ago in blackand white in the old play that should not have been adapted forstage much less screen. The pronouncement wasRead more…Thu, 07 Jul 2011 17:07:37 GMTPoemhttps://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/the-big-project/https://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/the-big-project/I’m working on the New Samurai Code, and it just got a website! The initial post talking about my vision for the Code website and project is up too. check it out!Mon, 30 May 2011 07:52:46 GMTTravelNew Samurai Codehttps://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/the-travel-plan/https://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/the-travel-plan/This week, I’m heading out of Ojai! I was planning to leave today but my car’s getting fixed, so I’ll need to leave tomorrow instead. The first place I’m heading Is LA, to visit my dad for a week orRead more…Mon, 02 May 2011 17:01:19 GMTTravelcalifornialos angeleshttps://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/message-to-go-on/https://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/message-to-go-on/Be welcome to the changing. You don’t have to do…anything. Just be this softness bringing color. Dont’ reach out to change the world. Do your work to purify yourself. Cultivate the clear, shining body. Be at peace with who youRead more…Wed, 27 Apr 2011 23:50:54 GMTPoemhttps://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/be-that/https://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/be-that/Every word I know has been used up – like metaphor. Each sadness that arises feels thin, past gone. There is no sweetness in the morning. There is no end to the sea or black rock running secret beneath itRead more…Wed, 27 Apr 2011 22:12:40 GMTPoemselfhttps://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/leaving/https://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/leaving/By the time the body goes the spirit is just memory rushing ahead like dogs unleashed in a new green world. The concrete body is faithful to the exigencies of slow-time, holding everything that was left behind making new life.Read more…Thu, 07 Apr 2011 21:19:44 GMTPoemhttps://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/the-going-is-coming/https://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/the-going-is-coming/In 2002, I followed the call to leave Sacramento and open an Aikido school, ending up in beautiful Ojai. Another call has come. I’m not sure what exactly I’m going to do, but in early May, I’m going to beRead more…Mon, 07 Mar 2011 03:51:45 GMTTravelNataliehttps://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/gravity/https://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/gravity/The sense of falling and wondering, arrogantly or with ingenue, if it had been made, fresh, in that moment, just for him, wondering if it would go on and on, like flight.   But the sea from such a heightRead more…Mon, 14 Feb 2011 17:04:42 GMTPoemhttps://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/158/https://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/158/Life is absurd. I’m serious. Why would the shaking, pulsing edge of being saddle itself with the pasty fat-man of meaning? Why would the shattering potential at the slicing edge between existing and not existing, why would the blue-skinned PeaceRead more…Mon, 07 Feb 2011 21:26:26 GMTPoemhttps://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/enough/https://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/enough/Winter wears grass and soft leaves in the desert. Green enough to break your heart though that’s not the intent. The sky remembers wet and blue in unequal measure, close enough to touch, but improbable like a child’s painting. ForRead more…Mon, 31 Jan 2011 16:58:24 GMTPoemhttps://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/intellectual-2/https://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/intellectual-2/I finally figured it out. I have an intellectual penis – hell, maybe we all do! If my brain is my biggest sexual organ It’s only fair that my cock joins in on calculus. I’m serious. As I think aboutRead more…Thu, 30 Dec 2010 04:47:52 GMTPoemidentitysexualityhttps://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/linoleum/https://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/linoleum/Lying on the kitchen floor, Under the table. Tears and linoleum Mark your long absence And the terrible wrench of an ambiguous goodbye. When I arrived, you hold shy flowers you pretended Not to give me. When I left county,Read more…Thu, 30 Dec 2010 04:01:19 GMTPoemhttps://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/all-business/https://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/all-business/Pit fire and the smell of wine business was on the table, violet myrtle climbed the wall behind you with tiny fingers, as the corners of your mouth lost themselves into hope-stained curves. Our shoes, black and brown, tapped redRead more…Thu, 30 Dec 2010 03:56:47 GMTPoemLightsexualityhttps://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/brighthaven-intro/https://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/brighthaven-intro/Here’s the totally unedited intro to my new book, Brighthaven. Savage away, please. P.S. Every fantasy book needs a creepy cat intro. “Kitty, here kitty, kitty,” the old woman’s voice crooned, searching the night with cataract eyes. Sitting like aRead more…Tue, 09 Nov 2010 23:22:43 GMTBook Samplehttps://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/rest-stop-bathroom/https://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/rest-stop-bathroom/He sat in the stall, Pants up, trying to hide What he was doing as though it Were dirtier, somehow, than the Business this stinking place was built for. When I pushed the door Open and he looked up atRead more…Tue, 09 Nov 2010 21:56:15 GMTPoemsexualityhttps://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/intellectual/https://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/intellectual/This one caused some interesting stir at Kim Rosen’s poetry retreat in Hawaii. As well it should! I finally figured it out. I have an intellectual penis – hell, maybe we all do! If my brain is my biggest sexualRead more…Fri, 29 Oct 2010 16:04:53 GMTPoemsexualityhttps://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/cold-water-worms/https://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/cold-water-worms/I thought a happy poem was important. Not all my poems are about Folsom Lake, I swear. Folsom lake is always cold. That’s its virtue. On afternoon blazes, a boyfriend and I would go to a secluded rocky cove, loseRead more…Fri, 29 Oct 2010 16:01:30 GMTPoemhttps://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/4x4/https://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/4x4/I’m wanting to do something with the poetry I’ve written about struggles with sexuality and being a gay man in the world. This is the first. This poem is emblematic for me of the difficulty meeting with men who don’tRead more…Fri, 29 Oct 2010 01:17:57 GMTPoemsexualityhttps://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/new-intro-to-empath/https://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/new-intro-to-empath/the intro adds the main love interest, Ryan, which I think is much more yummy! He was breathing hard from his Pilates floor routine. No reformer in the hotel, but he relished the feeling of unmachined training. It raised memoriesRead more…Tue, 26 Oct 2010 16:54:52 GMTEmpathhttps://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/the-calling/https://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/the-calling/This is the movement deep within, the voice of the self, the voice of Krishna, the calling of the divine, urging you to open, to delight, to unfold. I want to live in you the way fire lives in theRead more…Tue, 12 Oct 2010 17:30:45 GMTAudioPoeminspirationletting goLightPromoselfhttps://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/indigo-robes/https://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/indigo-robes/This is going to go into the chapter on relationships/the social. Talking about the way relationship connects us to ourselves and the transpersonal simultaneously. River bottom and no travail. His body was long and lean as the pure white ofRead more…Tue, 14 Sep 2010 17:39:59 GMTPoemhttps://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/this-night/https://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/this-night/Inspired by my dog, Natalie, who has a terrible problem staying home when things are afoot. This night (like every night) Is not for sleeping This night is to remind you To laugh out loud, uncontrollably, For absolutely no reason.Read more…Wed, 08 Sep 2010 19:41:42 GMTPoemhttps://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/faith/https://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/faith/Urge a freight train and it’s hard to get off the rails. Closeness a need like a dog’s – they wait day and night outside, as close as possible risking wrath breaking rules. To be faithful, all other rules stretchRead more…Fri, 13 Aug 2010 16:13:52 GMTPoemhttps://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/virtues-of-the-new-samurai-code/https://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/virtues-of-the-new-samurai-code/I was just working on the virtues of the New Samurai Code, and I wrote this section (far from print-ready), but I think I’m discovering it’s important to keep my sense of humor. Courage – The Samurai was trained toRead more…Fri, 06 Aug 2010 16:14:18 GMTNSChttps://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/73/https://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/73/I love sometimes when I find a fierce, fiery Rumi poem amidst the warm ocean of his poetry. Hearty, fiery exhortation is sometimes the kick in the pants I need. This one is, for me, a good post on theRead more…Wed, 28 Jul 2010 17:50:51 GMTPoemhttps://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/inspiration/https://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/inspiration/Also working on a chapter on inspiration, on re-connecting to the things in our lives, in our practice that delight us, to the glimpses of joy, union, lack of separation that draw us out of ourselves. I’m thinking to useRead more…Tue, 27 Jul 2010 17:17:13 GMTPoemhttps://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/ready-now/https://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/ready-now/I’m working on a chapter in New Samurai Code on focusing on the core drive of your practice, purpose, life. I thought this would be a great inspirational side-piece. You are ready now for the treasure which has been setRead more…Tue, 27 Jul 2010 17:00:38 GMTNSCPoemhttps://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/changing-for-peace/https://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/changing-for-peace/It looks like the Fighting for Peace Project was just the beginnings of another movement. I’m currently working on a larger project I’m calling “New Samurai Code”, which is going to be a book, and a seminar series. The topicRead more…Thu, 15 Jul 2010 17:47:36 GMTNSChttps://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/silo-of-gibberish/https://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/silo-of-gibberish/A life of running, unathletically, unwittingly, like gazelles with a spark in the grass. It started early, this flying. From myself from silence from things ending Under cold skies now, my Irish eyes open wide at last I am runningRead more…Wed, 14 Jul 2010 05:16:56 GMTPoemhttps://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/secret-documents/https://www.simplecommunion.com/blog/secret-documents/So here’s the first poem I’m working with for Fighting for Peace. Feeling a call to make it more lyrical, but not sure I’m gonna do that. The Letter’s arrived and they’re asking you – Will you come to serveRead more…Thu, 17 Jun 2010 18:01:45 GMTPoem