the intercedent

celebrate your arrival

not because you have come
to become something else

but because something
already alive within you
has agreed
to listen again

freshly

to see again

for yourSelf,
and for others,
within this ever alive conversation
we call life

where possibility waits
not beyond fear,
but beneath it

not somewhere after
what was
or what may be

but here

as is

as what's so

withinasthru this authentic power,
a power given freely,
without condition,
without permission needed,
you are asked only this

keep an open heart

not a perfect heart

not an untouched heart

an open one

one willing to speak,
to receive,
to share,
to generate,
to paint upon the canvas of life
from the colors
only your becoming
could have mixed
and blended

because there is a larger you
listening

dimensions within dimensions

spheres within spheres

walking,
talking,
breathing universes

each one asking
to be met
in relationship

here

now

where energy,
information,
and intelligence
are not ideas

but weather

but breath

but the quiet architecture
of being fully alive

this is what these poems
have arrived
to assist with

not to tell you who you are

but to stand close enough
to the remembering
that you may feel
your own name
returning

because in the end,
a poem is only a comma

a pause in the sentence
life is forever writing

a breath
between what has been spoken
and what may now be seen

a small opening
where reflection enters

where insight softens
the defended place

where the soul
has room enough
to recognize Self

this is the work
of the intercedent

not savior

not guru

not answer

a pause

a presence

a threshold

a brief and willing bridge
between forgetting
and remembrance

as poet,
i enter moments
intentionally brief

for my authentic power
is rooted
at the base
of mountain wisdom trails
worn smooth
before time
needed a name

i remember,
when clear,
the thousands upon thousands
of lifetimes
chosen consciously
to re-enter space-time

to play every role
there was to play

full out

king and beggar

mother and child

builder and destroyer

wound and witness

student and storm

and yet,
after all the roles,
it is this one
that calls me again

poet

intercedent

comma of a man

called from timeless remembering,
called by an ancient promise,
called not to stand above you

but beside the opening
where you may remember
you were never less
than whole

and it is you,
my oh so courageously
vulnerable friend,
your arrival
to this shared experience,
that helps me remember too

the power of solar winds

the transient force
the heart can wield

the way coherence
does not conquer

it aligns

it gathers
what was scattered

it gives the unseen
a place to enter form

so we may lay fear aside

my heart,
and yours

long enough
to become truth expressed
into this vibrant,
full-spectrum,
living experience
we create
as the creators
we are

not someday

not after permission

not when all wounds
have been explained

now

because the prison
was rarely locked
from the outside

because we have too often
held our own Self
behind bars
built from protection,
certainty,
old story,
and inherited fear

not knowing
we were the jailer

not seeing
the skeleton key
was Self awareness

and even as we awaken
to the stone-cold fact
that potential
is but
an unfulfilled promise

we remember

choice
is the hinge

presence
is the opening

love
is the way withinasthru

and in this moment,
we remember our Self

whole

complete

not finished,
whole

not perfect,
present

choosing once again
to live life
as life is choosing
to live withinasthru us

and in this choosing,
we remember
to live

fully

because there is a promise
only you can fulfill upon

and there is a promise
only i can fulfill upon too

and sometimes,
for a moment,
those promises meet

you and i

not by accident

not by ownership

not by need

but by invitation

a poem enters

a mirror appears

a breath slows

and somewhere inside
the old noise
loosens its grip

through these words,
offered in transparent reflection,
you may come to know
who i am
in relationship to you

not all of me

only this role

humble poet

kind witness

temporary servant
of the space between

until the winds change

until the comma dissolves

until the pause
has given what it came to give

and this poet
returns again
to the nothingness
from which he arrived

leaving no monument

no claim

no demand

only feeling

etched softly
into your being

only enough light
for your inspired story
to script
its next worthy chapter

able to create

able to receive

able to meet
all that life
can provide

because i do not pretend
to know
more than this moment

i will not promise
a tomorrow
that may or may not exist
inside this reflection

but this much
you may trust

this poet's heart
is large enough
to hold the space
you invite it to hold

to shield
what asks for gentleness

to protect
what is still remembering
it is safe to open

to serve
only until service
is no longer needed

not because i need
anything from you

not because i believe
another holds power
over you

not because i imagine
i can do unto you
what your own presence
has not already allowed

but simply because

i am only
that part of you

that is poet

reminding

nothing more

and absolutely
nothing less

so as this poem
continues to spiral
further into the sphere
of Us

know this

the poet's smile
has deepened
since our reunion

the servant
behind these words
is still learning
how to live them

still working
to integrate poem
into being,
becoming

still bowing
before the mystery
that lets language
become doorway

until the pragmatic goddess
calls this poet home

i am here
to serve

as intercedent

as comma

as breath

as reminder

for the quickening
is upon us

and it is forever
more than we have yet
come to understand

so let us arrive
cleanly

let us listen
freshly

let us choose
with open hearts

and let us begin,
here, now.

Àṣẹ.

sk

~ PoetSK™