“Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.” ~ Rumi
there were guards
with spears –
with bows and arrows,
metal plates across their chests,
narrow windows,
a molten moat,
large rocks ready to catapult,
a stone edifice
with dread and fist
climbed toward the sky,
standing alone outside.
you were about to knock
on the thick, wooden door;
it stood there solitary
suspended
and raised ready to
it appeared from thin air,
protecting what was in
the dragon’s lair.
but, you didn’t have to knock
we knew you were about to,
and the defenses knew what to do:
take their positions,
man their stations,
look menacing while growling,
and to draw back their bows,
sharp arrows pointing at your nose.
oh yes,
the door was to my heart…
i waited in my dragon’s arms
expecting the typical to happen;
they either shot you
or scared you away.
but, there was only silence…
i started to stir in my dragon’s arms
and he didn’t like this at all.
so he made a big fuss
of breathing fire
stamping his feet
and shaking the fortress walls.
i was curious, though.
i crawled to a narrow window
to have a look
and there you were,
just sitting on the ground –
watching,
waiting,
a look of amusement
spreading across your face.
in frustration, i thought,
“this is not a spectacle
to sit and watch!
this is real
and you’re supposed to be scared
of this fortress with a dragon’s lair!”
oh, get this…
then, you laid back
to stare at the sky,
to watch the clouds float by.
meanwhile, my army writhed
as the minutes passed by,
they didn’t know what to do
with nothing to react to.
slowly everything began
to vanish around me.
the dragon turned to walk away
even though i waved my arms for it to stay…
the stone and armor
rattled and crashed to the ground
and i was startled by each riotous sound.
i looked around my fortress ruin
and felt quite alone
without my dragon throne.
that all i wanted to do
was to walk toward you.
you laid there so still,
watching the clouds sail by,
listening to the wind rustle leaves.
i walked over to you
and you simply said,
“isn’t the sky an amazing blue?”
January 9, 2011 — Inside of each of us is this patient, loving presence that is waiting for us…waiting for our defenses to come down…waiting for us to acknowledge its existence. This poem is for that aspect in me and in each of us…
