By David C. Weiss,
You want to enter my gardento stroll barefooton morning dew-brushed grass
scent the redolenceof morning gloriesopened by dawn’s first light
and dip your cupin sunlit shimmering brookto nourish your parched tender mouth.
If you want to enter my gardenyou must entermy cave where dank air
is smoldering with the stenchof childhoodabandonment and grief
and smear your naked bodywith the acidic dustof terror and despair.
Then you will discovera child’s school lunch boxcontaining shards of a ceramic Jesus
four tiger-eye marblesa plastic whistlefrom a Cracker Jacks box
and words scribbledon the insideof a candy wrapper
“I Am Beautiful Just The Way I Am.”
After closing his practice of thirty-five years in 2011 as a marriage and family therapist and with the publication of his first collection of poems, “A Heart on Fire, Poems from the Flames,” David has been devoted to writing poetry and offering presentations and workshops on the poetry of eastern and western mystics. He is a student of the Shakuhachi, a Japanese bamboo flute played in Zen meditation and performs, combining flute music with poetry readings. David has a Master of Theology and Ph.D. in Pastoral Psychology degrees from Boston University. He is on the faculty of OLLI College at the University of Southern Maine and a visiting instructor of poetry at Sera Jhy Tibetan Buddhist Monastery in South India. David’s website is www.davidcweiss.com.
Cave Image by Hans Braxmeier
