"Dear Robert"

"St John of the Cross heard an Arab love poem
Through the bars and began his poem" ~Robert Bly

This is a wide ocean, we could swim for centuries
and never find a shore
but you, Dear Robert, have given us so many ladders
so many points of entry to the sea

St John of the Cross heard the Arab love poem
and climbed down that ladder
I read your love words
and find myself in foreign pools, at home

I've never heard a love poem absent of the Beloved
never heard a Muslim, Hindu, Jew or Christian
who, when speaking of love, didn't love the same Being
that this heart longs for

our Beloved may be an elephant
but his trunk wraps about us all
and hold us up
beyond the waves that could take us under

we all are trapped behind the same bars as St John
we all long for the same escape
if only we'd bare our necks bravely
no one would be left in the house
there would be no need for pews

prayer mats
or turning toward the east

every spot of light
opens to the same freedom
there is nowhere we can turn
that hasn't been touched by the Beloved's gaze