SOUND

Though sounding the breath
tames the mind,
as the out-breath deepens

sound shallows. As the in-breath slows
sound glows as a distant pulse, a heart-pulse of light
As the reverberation of breath ends,

the distillation of light
begins. Between ending and beginning
the mind disappears. Cleansed,

in the full heat of the sun,
sweat streams from my pores.
As I breathe out sound

and breathe in light,
may strands of sound and light
coil up my spine

and descend to my heart.
Unsounded, the letters brighten.
Sounded, they settle

within the head, throat, heart,
gut and sex in its den, its Eden,
at the base of the spine.

As I sound each letter
light shapes itself as sound.
Though the meaning of sound

is sound
and the meaning of light
is light,

when sound arrays its colors
meaning unravels. Diamond clear
at the brow, ruby rich

at the throat, sapphire sure
in the heart, deeply golden in the gut,
emerald bright in Eden’s cove.

Thought, bound by sight and sound,
deafens and blinds itself with meaning.
Seeing, surely seeing, may I hear

the sounded breath
cease
in rainbow light.

In this day’s dark moon
fetal depths,
without sound or light

to nurture me,
mark not these half-wit words
as experience

but as an aspiration
prayer. May I be borne
in that prayer’s

longing