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    M E A N I N G A N D E X P E R I E N C E

    M I C H A E L B O L E R J A C K

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    Meaning and Experience 2012 Michael Bolerjack

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    The first draft of the poems for Meaning and

    Experience was written between February andMay of 2008, in the context of the assignment

    for a class in the Catholic Intellectual Tradition

    taught by a Franciscan nun at the University of

    St. Thomas. It was part of a Menippean work in

    verse and prose. The prose part was a 65 page

    essay on Edith Stein and the CIT. At the time I

    was going through a phase of being enamored

    with the East, and had acquired many

    paperbacks on the Buddha and others, so that Iwas quite dissatisfied with the CIT. This was

    prior to my appropriation to the Apocalypse.

    Subsequent to this, after my graduation, I went

    through a time of testing in 2009, with a suicide

    attempt, a failure at a job as a teacher, and a

    complete inability to edit the hundreds of

    pages of writings on the arrival I had

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    composed between 2006 and 2008. On

    November 2, 2009, I awoke early and set out on

    foot for St. Michaels Church. There, thatmorning, on All Souls Day, I surrendered to

    Christ. A finished version of the poem followed.

    In 2012, having written the Apocalypse, I

    rewrote the poem for publication. The fourth

    part that appears below is the way it was in

    2009, while the second and third parts are all

    new, and the first retains vestiges of the

    original poem and the rewrite of it 2009. After

    all this, a month ago, we returned to theButterfly Museum, where a white butterfly

    attached itself to me upon entering, and before

    leaving, so that an attendant had to manually

    remove it. It appeared to me a signal grace of

    the Lord.

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    The poem is a thousand stanzas in Haiku

    format, the number of syllables, seventeen,

    being thematically important. It is a religiouspoem, speaking of Christ, his Mind, the

    antichrist, the One Mind, known as AI, and the

    martyrdom of Edith Stein. It is confessional,

    often self-accusatory. It tries to negotiate the

    difference between Buddha and Christ, of

    which I also wrote in search for the absolute.

    I will append the concluding words I wrote in

    2012 that will appear, along with the new

    fourth part, inA Time For Everything:

    I am the platen

    In the composer of God,

    The last line I have forgotten. You might

    substitute the word envois there, thus:

    [envois]

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    Meaning and Experience,

    Part 1

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    The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; and I am greatly pleased with my inheritance.

    Psalm 16: 6

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    I dedicated

    Myself to God though I did

    Delay: Lord forgive.

    I dedicate this

    Work to the priests I have known

    And to another:

    This book is for a

    Teacher: A sister in God:

    Paula Jean Miller.

    In the end I did

    Not avoid the truth you taught

    And you still believe.

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    I believed: Therefore

    I spoke: Tell all the truth but

    Tell it slant: in this

    I could tell all my

    Truth and nothing but the Truth:

    As you helped me God.

    Texts are woven things:

    This was a coat of many

    Colors: as given.

    So be thankful for

    The colors given and His

    Light by which we see.

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    Pure mind and pure heart:

    An old man limping laughing

    Sees the tree at dusk.

    Four sisters and I

    Standing in the lake alone:

    What is covenant?

    Neither monk nor lay

    A man went this way living

    Life in His presence.

    Flowers drooping heads

    In dryness await the rain

    Without meaning to.

    Meaning is absent

    But experience is known

    By presence itself.

    The experience

    And the meaning come apart

    In silence not known.

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    Interpretations

    Always miss the mark; always

    Miss experience.

    The fact of the light:

    More than words can say: empties

    Me of self and sense.

    Silence and meaning

    Are not part of a system

    But are not opposed.

    The mystic moment

    Misunderstood passed me by

    As I read a book.

    [envois] and heavy [envois]

    Men in cities avoid truth

    In their neighbors eyes.

    Around the table

    We discussed meaning and life

    Despite our heartbeats.

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    The pain of living

    And the joy of finding out

    Push and pull again.

    I could not keep it

    But silence knew what to do

    And this bubbled up.

    No reconstruction

    As I stand beneath the sky:

    Just the light in air.

    No birds trace the way:

    Trackless expanse of Heaven

    Unstained and unfeigned.

    Quiet nights and peace:

    Afternoons playing at sums:

    Balance in my hand.

    Young men chase each thing

    Across the green yard of life:

    Feeling faces lit.

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    Without knowing how

    And without meaning to know

    Yet life too chose me.

    Under stars without

    I stood and pointed to one

    Inventing meaning.

    The reinvention

    That happens naturally

    Is the best of all.

    Supernatural

    The battle for the faith:

    Wrinkles in my flesh.

    Look over and see

    Beyond yonder wall the man

    Who died just to be.

    Gracious and godly

    The opening in me yawned

    But did not swallow.

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    Separate from me

    Reality dwells apart

    But within me yet.

    Men and women cross

    Themselves in hope of finding

    A child between them.

    The mountain abides

    Yet there is peace in the vale

    And heights cause a fall.

    Stumbling level ground:

    Step after step following:

    The walker crosses.

    Neither height nor depth

    Nor any other thing stands

    Between You and I.

    Behind us nothing:

    Between us everything else:

    We communicate.

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    Summer Autumn Spring

    All delight but bare Winter

    Lies secret within.

    The emptiness here

    Where I once was: now not I

    But peace perfect peace.

    If you choose or not

    Yet you are chosen: Abide

    In Him and be It.

    To be free of this:

    To this be free here and now:

    There is no secret.

    Words about words fail

    But the peace of light reaches

    Filling the darkness.

    Light itself empties

    Yet fills all things not knowing

    And without intent.

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    Simply breathing air

    Is what he did: also this:

    Some rose and some fell.

    The impossible

    Is the only thing worth our

    Attempt: Yes we can.

    Forget all structure

    Because form is not the One:

    When you as you are.

    If the tree could see

    He would see not light but the

    Other trees nearby.

    Lacking sight not light

    The blindness of men is this:

    They looked away.

    They say peace someday:

    But I say peace if you will:

    Be yourself right now.

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    Shadows do not hide

    But we hide in them because

    We want to forget.

    When you awake

    Everything is beautiful:

    Even homely words.

    Too much instruction:

    We sign and we sign without

    Our feet on the ground.

    Universities

    Created the meaning but

    For a mundane love.

    If you could touch me

    I would neither indicate

    Nor express meaning.

    After the heart breaks

    We learn to sing the blues out

    Yet the wound remains.

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    Almost out of breath

    I ran to meet you smiling

    With disheveled hair.

    Cross yourself again

    And find your directions in

    The silent imprint.

    Neither cold nor wet

    I am yet the hungry dog

    Standing at your door.

    I met you at church

    And what we became was more

    Than that: Life itself.

    Yesterday I drank

    And you filled me with travel

    Taking me away.

    In joyful wisdom

    Neither rational nor not:

    Whiskey and Women.

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    If music were words

    It would lose its emptiness

    And begin to mean.

    The heart must empty

    Before it can fill with blood:

    In rhythms we live.

    Crossing the river

    I saw an island in mist

    Without being there.

    The dry: The empty:

    The desert full of wisdom:

    The place of testing.

    It doesnt matter

    What color her eyes or skin:

    But can she forget?

    If I stayed longer

    It would be to love you more:

    Without fear or care.

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    If I care too much

    I will not let you ascend

    To where you must be.

    He showed me the way

    And we placed our crosses

    In Jerusalem.

    A city I see

    Unlike any other one:

    If only love builds.

    Remember me then

    Once or twice in the wake

    Till we meet again.

    Not understanding

    I loved I knew not what yet

    Love itself was true.

    I loved you without

    Concepts ideas or things

    But in the living.

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    Meaningful research

    Does not combine others words

    In new arrangements.

    My father appeared:

    Traveled everywhere he went:

    In ashes he blew.

    My wife came so far:

    So far from her home seeking

    For something somewhere.

    Our city ruined

    We rebuilt with trowel and

    Sword: our two arms full.

    I always loved you

    For you were with me before

    In the dream I had.

    Only yesterday

    I had a glimpse of life and knew

    Without meaning.

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    To carry something

    For somebody: Charity

    Brings unending Grace.

    What is past is past

    And yet without forgetting

    We invent our life.

    In discovery

    Without searching or meaning

    We will love again.

    Too much straitening

    Causes order to structure

    Chaos completely.

    If I could sing you

    Without words or intention

    Then you would love me.

    Lived experience

    Escapes meaning giving thanks

    Morning and evening.

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    Lovers and deamers

    And madmen like I speak

    No image: one Word.

    Without cognition:

    To be the substance itself

    Is finding Truth.

    Without losing hope

    Yet without expectation:

    Wait and wait again.

    Nothing behind us:

    Nothing is what it seems and

    You already are.

    I fell into Grace

    The only way I knew how:

    By being broken.

    Light absolutely

    Breaks and scatters the darkness

    We are despite love.

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    If I try to be

    I am not: but sitting still

    He found me alone.

    A dark night ordeal

    I could not count the [envois] so

    Black in my own mind.

    Salvation saw me

    Sitting still beneath a tree

    And He called to me.

    He empties Himself

    And shows a way that cannot

    Make sense to the world.

    He sang his own song

    Yet given from above In-

    Comprehensible.

    Touch me in pity:

    Find a heart beneath my mind:

    Now: without passion.

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    In breathing I am

    In all things respiring in

    Him and He in me.

    When not if He comes

    He will find faith in cities

    That we did not burn.

    When not if He comes

    Only His words will matter:

    Not our constructions.

    When not if He comes

    Every Buddha will clap hands

    While sinners rejoice.

    Mindful without thought

    Children play and old men dream:

    Life itself goes on.

    Victory is not

    Simple assertion and yet

    It must be disclosed.

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    I learned despite not

    Knowing and I gained more than

    An education.

    After I was shot

    It took 20 years to die

    But now I can live.

    A man all in black

    Said very well and fine but

    What do you do now?

    The compass caught north

    And despite direction lost

    The future beyond.

    Put your right shoe on

    First and the rest will follow

    Of its own accord.

    She found the water

    Without a bucket or well:

    Life itself happened.

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    He said keep dancing

    To your own drummer so

    I went on my way.

    If you cant sit still

    You must run until you walk:

    Then you will allow.

    Allowance found me

    Alone on my bed without

    Expecting a thing.

    I lived on sheer faith

    Climbing the cliff face without

    Any skill but hope.

    O little children

    If I could only free you:

    But you must free yourselves.

    O men of eighty

    If I could restore your life:

    You would not let me.

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    Women O Women:

    You and you and you: without

    Your knowing I died.

    Keep alive the dream

    Especially while awake:

    Let your feet not stray.

    Will your love survive

    Without understanding why?

    I say better yet.

    The double-edge sword

    Cuts this way and that slicing

    The knot of knowledge.

    If I could be you

    I would still be me only

    Without the desire.

    Language fails because

    It means too much: the Truth is

    Still and in stillness.

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    I had a feeling

    There was literature here

    But could not find it.

    Without a purpose

    The tradition is taught you

    While you inform it.

    Educationless

    To the nth degree I read

    Life backwards fading.

    Some people work in

    The Church while others pray for

    A Kingdom to come.

    I will come with you:

    Wherever you go I will

    Be there before you.

    Without certainty

    Universities will fail:

    Yet You are the Truth.

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    The light that breaks us

    Is more than we could have hoped:

    Every knee will bend.

    I have spent more time

    I have wasted more money

    Than [envois].

    Forgive me for this

    It is not to be allowed:

    I almost told you.

    Out of the depths cry

    Words that indicate without

    Expressing the truth.

    All we can do is

    All we can do and not much:

    Will it be enough?

    With fear and trembling

    And in joy and hope we live:

    With what will we die?

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    Is bad love better

    Than no love at all? It seems

    That time of season.

    I was always wrong

    But turning left one more time

    I arrived at peace.

    Vain is all seeking

    And yet when He finds you then

    You are truly found.

    Look not here nor there

    Still less within: if He knocks

    Do not be afraid.

    Stranger in the night

    Announced again and again:

    Still He surprised me.

    Pierced to the marrow:

    My heart was ready for death

    And even for Him.

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    The sun will come up

    On us tomorrow always:

    God willing it so.

    I saw an old friend

    And exclaimed at the species:

    One in a million.

    All are lost but so

    That all may be found: we are

    One in salvation.

    Good and evil were

    My limits but without them

    I reached out to you.

    Without meaning to

    Means I cannot make a claim:

    I am what I am.

    I intend no thing:

    Neither play nor purpose nor

    Approximation.

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    Becoming simpler

    Is not simple but involves

    A winding detour.

    In our labyrinths

    In our selves we lose the way

    Till it shows itself.

    The Revelation

    Who God is and who you are:

    Inseparable.

    Nobody knows why

    But we stumble trip fall and

    Find it anyway.

    Felix culpa is

    The great truth of life because

    Humility is.

    Pure mind and pure heart:

    To love the Good without guile:

    How simple: How hard:

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    Pure mind and pure heart:

    To forget yourself for love:

    How necessary.

    Unbecoming mind:

    Mindfulness without grasping:

    Hard the narrow way.

    My wife and I climbed

    Kilimanjaro today

    And touched butterflies.

    After the poem

    Has been interpreted what

    Remains of silence?

    Structurality

    Must be grounded in something

    Autrement: Freedom.

    Meaning plus music

    Allows freedom that mere play

    Can never afford.

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    The deconstruction

    Cannot deconstruct silence:

    Mystic effraction.

    Circular meanings

    Implicate endlessly but

    The silence escapes.

    Neither expression

    Nor indication: music

    And silence vibrate.

    The crisis passes:

    Minds allow each other more

    Than bodies can know.

    Without conventions:

    Neither seize nor know the day:

    Simply release it.

    Poets cannot know

    Anything but write their verses

    Any way to live.

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    Writers write: fish swim:

    Some people cook their food and

    Some eat their food raw.

    To get at the thing

    You must uncover it and

    In this words can help.

    The blue butterfly

    (for instance) in his pathless

    Flight lit on my hand.

    I eternally hold

    A hand at no striving [envois]

    And yet it happens.

    It did not mean to

    And I did not know meaning

    Itself afterwards.

    Angela the saint

    Suffered me in the holy

    Creativity.

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    To be there with it

    Beneath sky-high waterfalls

    Was without meaning.

    But it had event

    Written in it and a hand

    Greeting not grasping.

    Explanation

    Will not do and description

    Never tells the truth.

    Alain Badiou

    Wrote the truth is like saying

    Keep going forward!

    To adequate Christ

    And Buddha: Empty within:

    Everything is grace.

    The way is of Christ

    And we all walk on that way

    Though some walk away.

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    Dharma way also

    Is Christian: Buddha made no

    Claim against the Truth.

    One way all [envois]

    But no one is the actor:

    Deny yourself: Yes.

    He did not mean you

    Must suffer but meant you must

    Die: Unless a seed

    But we suffer though

    We need not: because of love.

    Compassionate One!

    Christ nailed to the tree:

    Buddha meditating on

    Suffering beneath.

    Both take on and put

    Off perishibility:

    Both arise awake.

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    Buddha in glory:

    Jesus ran His race well:

    In both completion.

    Resurrection is:

    I must decrease: He is here:

    No actor: All: All.

    God is all in all

    So He had to die to be

    Completed in us.

    Not that God Himself

    Needed to be completed:

    It was for our sakes.

    Subjectless without

    Object there is no is-ness

    But simply presence.

    I am not present

    Nor can I be shown in your

    Representations.

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    What is not present

    Cannot be shown to you in

    Representations.

    Representations

    Are not: images are not:

    You and I are not.

    God is all in all:

    Without structure or being:

    He is this movement.

    It is a hard thing

    To deny yourself for Him:

    Yes: He is: not I.

    I am not I AM:

    I am does not anymore:

    He abundantly.

    The cross is in this:

    Realization consists

    Of denying self.

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    I mean that I am:

    Experience is other:

    I AM does not mean.

    Meaningful research

    Into self reveals nothing

    At bottom but God.

    I am illusion:

    Whatever depends is not:

    He is in my hand.

    I cannot be me

    But there is nothing else but

    To be me here now.

    What is here and how

    In denying self empties

    Itself into Him.

    Neither I am nor

    That thou art: but even less

    Solipsistic sense.

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    Meaning always means

    I am but in self denied

    Experience is.

    The cleavage is real:

    Paradoxically real:

    Reality IS.

    God is not only

    The Most Real but the only

    One Who IS: despite:

    Despite language games:

    Philosophizing reasons:

    Desires: Lusts: Pleasures.

    Sense is not non-sense:

    Reality exceeds both:

    The absolute IS.

    Awareness is real:

    Jesus as man felt the pain

    For our pain was His.

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    He was at the point

    And broke through all suffering

    In contradiction.

    Buddhas in ascent:

    Christ descended into hell:

    All is redemption.

    The teacher instructs

    By various ways and means

    To light up our minds.

    Lamps unto our feet

    Guides to our paths: meaningful

    To the moral faith.

    But experience

    Of Buddha and Christ is not

    Found in their meanings.

    God is undefined:

    No propositions in God:

    De-limit the mind.

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    Find the beginning:

    Where I end is where He is:

    I must decrease.

    Words are not yet Him

    And writers neither lose Him nor

    Find His meaning.

    The writer seeks not

    Meaning not expression but

    An experience.

    The trap of writing

    Is that it is illusion

    And does not mirror.

    Referring to self

    It fails: but we are not it:

    The Lord uses us.

    On the battleground

    Minds are lost and won and more

    Won in the losing.

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    When you fail you know:

    You know you do not know and

    Must stop trying to.

    Desks are poor things full

    Of papers and ambition:

    Here I sit not-I.

    Old boy what seek ye?

    Truth is not illusion but

    Knowing is just that.

    Truth cannot be known:

    Truth is then when I am not:

    How can it be known?

    I allow (lets say)

    By emptiness a space for

    Truth to emerge in.

    Detached: dismantled:

    Words are the last delusion:

    He did not SAY it.

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    He did not tell us

    Repeat after me but this:

    Deny: and: Follow.

    Following does not

    Mean anything: it is the

    Act of walking with.

    In walking with Him

    We have sympathy and in

    This is understanding.

    Many have told us

    What He meant: What did He do?

    He emptied Himself.

    Vessels of light are

    Not full but empty so that

    The light may fill them.

    The blind do not know

    The light despite accurate

    Explanation: Because:

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    The experience

    Of light itself acts like light:

    Light has no meaning.

    What makes meaning is

    The thing that is like the sun:

    Was Derrida right?

    Poverty dumbstruck:

    Meaninglessness rather than

    All these useless words.

    Abide: dwell: silent:

    Avoid speaking vanity

    Of all the vain things.

    We are: already:

    Useful words are words that use

    Themselves for climbing.

    Do not rebuild it:

    Let it lie: release it; Gone:

    Lovers: in love forgetting.

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    Reconcile yourself

    To Him in forgetting that

    Once I was I AM.

    HE WHO IS is that

    Absolutely: vanity

    To replace His place.

    Literature is

    Still the tower of babble:

    Brick on brick on brick.

    God did not do it:

    He does not but is beyond

    Our little towers.

    Not analogy:

    But He will substantiate:

    Transcendent in us.

    Not even being:

    That is interpretation:

    Withdrawal of self.

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    Meaning is order:

    To experience again

    My meaninglessness.

    However much I

    I seem to persist: My will

    Meaning intention.

    At some point the thing

    Approaches in silent notes

    And music happens.

    We walked up and down:

    We roamed the butterfly fields

    At the mountains edge.

    The butterflies seem

    Erratic: wandering: not

    Lost: but Bliss is Bliss.

    No point than to live:

    Till then my hand there appeared:

    Another moment.

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    I meant nothing: say

    It was not my intention:

    Say something happened.

    It was as she wished:

    We went somewhere and we did

    Something: yet did not.

    We believe all things:

    We rejoice in the day of

    The Lord: we are glad.

    That night I awoke:

    I said there is something that

    Is outside of me.

    [envois]

    There is something there

    Outside of me and allowing

    Myself the stillness.

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    The butterfly IS:

    A hand was extended and

    Then something happened.

    What? I cannot say

    Because it cannot be said

    Without a meaning.

    If I seem to say

    It is only an illusion:

    I have not said IT.

    Buddha and Jesus

    Lived IT: said words to be heard

    More real by witness.

    Light and all shadow

    Approximate the seasons:

    Jesus died in Spring.

    I trust in this fact:

    The Promise: He will come take

    Us soon to Heaven.

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    We too with Buddhas

    In glory and Christ in light

    To resound in song.

    God sings Himself in

    Us: through us: for us: and we

    Give Him instruments.

    Truth asks nothing more

    Than that it be sung: I say

    Even these stones sing.

    Even my mountain

    Cries out and will not let still:

    Harmony allows.

    Allow Jesus to

    Sing His song in you: never

    A song of myself.

    In absolute peace

    The greatest songs are silent:

    Becoming seemless.

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    Jesus died in Spring:

    Look at the flowers around

    And see Him growing.

    Without deception

    Following butterflies

    Will also lead you.

    They sing the same song

    Without words without knowing

    Without notation.

    The meaning (again)

    Impose suppose interpret:

    The butterfly IS.

    It is we who mean

    And we who sing but not the

    Butterflies who fly.

    Each blue dash and dart

    Simply was and I was not:

    And yet I may be.

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    A billion writers

    With their streaming meanings still

    Cannot make you fly.

    If you do you will

    Do so by your love: a

    Love without knowing.

    Neither hand will know

    The exchange of self for God

    Or when you took flight.

    The dignity of

    Us is in our willing not

    Our own but others.

    To take flight cannot

    Mean anything until you

    Fly: less even then.

    Stable but shifting:

    The words mean something but a

    Butterfly wants more.

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    Simple clarity

    And words about what happened:

    Discernment required.

    The paradox IS:

    We efface ourselves when we

    Realize ourselves.

    Never imitate:

    Dont just sit there and stare at Him:

    See the truth: He IS.

    Never imitate:

    Be: when you are yourselves then

    You no longer are.

    One above behind

    Us all behind all signs and

    Things makes us: Believe.

    In belief hearts are

    In sacrifice of self torn

    That we give the gift.

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    All I have is yours:

    When you give yourself to Him

    How can you remain?

    Neither I and I

    Nor Every Other even

    But beyond all that.

    I will never know:

    When I know I will then cease

    To exist as I.

    No mystery: Then

    Why so few reach for knowledge

    Knowing they will cease.

    We will destruction

    Of the world rather than this:

    Let God be you now.

    And we would rather

    Speak a streaming discourse:

    I: than not be I.

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    Yet I will not be:

    Why not now? Why not by Him?

    We say by His grace.

    Even without [envois]

    Or effort at the right time

    It simply happens.

    Though trials there to be

    And the fight of ceaseless war

    The peace is: still IS.

    And the war is won

    Not by surrender but [envois]

    By coming onslaught.

    Just be the peace and

    See: no will: no mind: no one:

    Radiant presence.

    Still dismantle me

    As talk continues to be:

    Continues to see.

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    Talk now less and less

    As monks learn to teach an all

    Through whelming silence.

    Poor butterflies: rich

    In poverty taking no

    Thing but simple flight.

    I saw them make love:

    In natural attraction

    With us by their side.

    But they (who can say

    Why) flew away leaving us

    To interpret them.

    Butterfly lovers:

    Us and them: in all we are:

    And in love finding.

    For compassion IS:

    To give a home and blessing:

    To find the right time.

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    To not dwell alone:

    Neither dwell without meaning:

    We finding outside.

    When I am not-I

    Then suddenly there is THIS:

    A world surrounding.

    Jacques said the context

    Is the meaning: Nothing can

    Carry it: but be.

    We absent ourselves

    [envois]

    Until transformation.

    Stepping outward bound

    We are almost are that Glory:

    Yet not us alone.

    Glory means nothing

    If I glorify myself:

    Give glory to God!

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    He the essential:

    I the passing: memories

    Will not be mounting.

    On the one mountain

    There is but glory alone:

    Let it be: enough.

    Versification

    Is the conversion of I

    Into the not-I.

    Experience is

    Not this: Experience is

    Forgetting to mean.

    Buddha on his side

    And Jesus on the cross died:

    Yet they did not die.

    Buddhas mindfulness

    And Christian suffering are

    Not polarities.

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    Experience first

    After suffering before

    Teaching us the way.

    Experience last

    Through suffering in order

    To teach us the way.

    Truth is the only

    Thing left to see: Whatever

    Is not is not real.

    Life is a vector

    Moving in a direction

    Without [envois].

    Associations:

    Come together fall apart:

    Particularly words.

    Mirrors of the real

    They are not real but seem:

    True propositions.

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    Neither description

    Nor explanation will do:

    I am not an I.

    If language distorts:

    Vehicles of metaphor:

    Words are not useless.

    Convey your belief:

    We are separate and so

    We still try to say.

    Just this separateness

    Falls into the signs of what

    Plato called the Gap.

    Between the ideal

    And the real is the shadow

    Which cannot be said.

    We lovers till then:

    Love us by separation:

    To jump the abyss.

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    Love is our meaning

    Yet in our experience

    We find what love is.

    Not only feeling

    But in the ground of being:

    Love creates our need.

    Pounding out the hours

    We would set sail out of love:

    For love: toward love.

    And we stand still

    Stranded on the shore waiting

    For better relief.

    There is one to come

    And He wipes away all tears

    In our dark sainthood.

    And we climb the steps:

    We shake off the need of pride

    For the one virtue.

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    What IS simply IS:

    When you become you will be:

    But we always wait.

    The kingdom is now:

    When we realize it we

    Show ourselves kingship.

    He is still within:

    Find after your I am the

    I AM THAT I AM.

    I am not: He IS:

    My I am is an echo

    Of the great I AM.

    Imagination

    Is the fool of time [envois]

    To good and evil.

    Knowledge must be: Yet

    In the Phantasm we know

    Nothing but ourselves.

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    Dont let me be proud:

    Lord make me an instrument

    Steady in your hand.

    Death will not hold us

    If we submit to Your will:

    Lord make me humble.

    God is my shepherd:

    I have wanted nothing but

    Needed discipline.

    My Lord and My God!

    I did it all for God and

    For her: for she IS.

    For God and for her:

    For in perfect wisdom the

    Virgins know God best.

    In my unknowing

    I wandered from the way and

    Almost lost my faith.

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    Yet Gods gifts and His

    Call are irrevocable:

    He did not let me.

    These shards of meaning

    Professing experience

    Miss the mark of Him.

    He is the Most High:

    Where others thought ideas

    Of infinity:

    Indefinitely

    Exposing the word to their

    Criticism-shame.

    The truth about that thing

    Called deconstruction is the

    Fact men loved a lie.

    They loved a lie and

    Worshipped themselves rather than

    The creator God.

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    Glory is but sight

    Cleansed of what I cannot be:

    The I I am not.

    In perfect vision

    Behold the man where He stands

    Bleeding in judgment.

    Then He gave glory:

    Crucified and Glorified:

    Him who died for you.

    Overcome evil with

    Good in peace with great patience:

    Despite the minds thoughts.

    Do not be afraid:

    All beings attend on you:

    Salvation is near.

    He saved me drowning:

    Some rise and some fall: amazed

    The abyss buoys.

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    Buddha walked a lot

    As did Christ to His crossing:

    Their words still travel.

    By example they

    Set out the better truths like

    Plato immortal.

    On one above we

    Depend: return to the source:

    Be not dismantled.

    For surely He comes:

    Be neither afraid nor doubt

    His voice calling you.

    Once again build up:

    Let yourself in uprightness

    Bow low before Him.

    When you came apart

    You still saw the meanings that

    Were meant to save you.

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    They were not words to

    The deaf but eyesight to the

    Blind in His Blessing.

    [envois]

    Both stand in the truth:

    One speaks IT the other IS:

    Christ thy name is Love.

    I am not my own

    Light and I cannot see you

    Without Him my lamp.

    If we could see Him

    In one another how could

    We cease believing?

    There are directions

    And if you follow them you

    Will not fall away.

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    Stay on the path and

    Walk more surely than before

    And gospel yourself.

    They once said that we

    Un do: let go: that truth is

    Always already.

    But I say hold on

    And never give up nor yet

    Give in to release.

    Atonement is not

    Imagination which

    Is but I the Fool.

    If I had known the

    Truth sooner I would have must

    Have written elsewhere.

    The really Real can

    Be seen in the weather: But

    Experience Him.

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    Find the one you know

    Who opens the clouds without

    Any force but light.

    Buddha said look past

    Me: but Pilate said Behold

    The Man: Jesus Christ.

    Truth will never stray:

    Truth returns to the place of

    Illumination.

    There is but one light:

    We all see by that one fire:

    We all shine with it.

    Words take on the dark:

    But how white the pages and

    Smooth their reception.

    You must be that page:

    Allow the inscrutable

    To inscribe itself.

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    Pages of marvel

    That turn to ash easily:

    Yet His words remain.

    [envois]

    Persist! Then: Persist!

    There is no happiness but

    In overcoming.

    Since He opened you

    You cannot close again but

    Sometimes you still try.

    God is the one who

    Teaches: His reign is rain: Soak

    Me with all Your Truth.

    Once I sat still and

    Waited on the arrival:

    It seemed forever.

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    More! More butterflies!

    More mountains to climb! Without

    Memory to see them.

    Words are more and less

    And the truth is in meaning

    But we lack the means.

    Or do we? He gives

    His Word unfailing and He

    Must be spoken through.

    Do not see me write:

    Do not imagine the scene:

    You already write.

    You are my event

    And I am your pretext for

    Good criticism.

    Dissolution is

    The acid word of the man

    Who deconstructs you.

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    Let yourself shine then:

    By the light: not in a dark

    Night of this writing

    But in the dark night

    Of the soul embraced by God

    Who is your Author.

    You are not the thing

    Itself and cannot know it:

    But it has always

    Known you and me in

    Our medicine and artless:

    Our pretty sinning.

    Alone to alone:

    But never alone I heard

    Him call me by name.

    Relationship is

    Not false in itself because

    We are all in Him.

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    Did you think that you

    Could lose yourself without then

    Losing Him as well?

    Mortal blindness! Fool!

    I am that very man that

    You are without Him.

    Once I did seem real

    But got over it after

    The enlightenment.

    Enlightenment is

    Without a doubt and yet

    Not what people think.

    Patience (the great thing)

    Means only you hold what you

    Have been given: Gifts

    From above because

    Despite what you have been told:

    You cannot save you.

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    The gift of presence

    Simply is experience:

    The meaning of life.

    For instance I say:

    Birds sing despite our sighing

    And do not let up.

    After your heart breaks

    You must still sing like the birds:

    Never letting up.

    There is no middle

    Way but a narrow one that

    Hurts: still you must sing!

    I once sang a song

    Knowing not what but it was

    Noise and weariness.

    What you are you are

    But do not ignore the law

    Written thou shall not.

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    Know thyself its said

    And it is still good to learn:

    But only in Him.

    After descent to

    Your vilest depth look up and

    See Christ in Glory.

    Only by knowing

    The difference will I know

    The truth of my world.

    There is an ancient

    Enemy without and one

    Within: Guard yourself!

    I was never for

    Hire and did not earn a days

    Wage: may God forgive.

    I hope: I hope He

    Will forgive my ignorance

    Thinking that I knew.

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    Jesus went into

    The desert in orderto

    Be tempted! And win!

    You have been given

    Temptations in order to

    Secure victory.

    Not for fun nor for

    Punishment are you tempted

    But to overcome.

    The experience

    Or meaning of the waste land

    Is not metaphor.

    You must live it for

    Yourself if you will conquer

    The evil and sin.

    As well as that of

    Living without the knowledge

    Of the truth He is.

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    Like anyone else

    I must climb from ignorance

    To understanding.

    I must learn to fight:

    Myself and all that stands in

    The way of my goal.

    If the world writes me

    Badly I will rewrite the

    Script and improvise.

    Truth is His stillness

    But also truth calls to me

    From the very storm.

    Truth does not cease in

    Pursuit of me though I still

    Run the other way.

    It is a good thing

    God loves us so much and that

    He never gives up.

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    Abandon ourselves

    To God and we will not fail

    To arrive on time.

    It was not in vain

    I once read of the Buddha

    Because [envois].

    My journey to the

    East was over and I came

    Around to my truth.

    Do not mistake the

    Finger pointing at the moon

    For the moon itself.

    But neither should i

    Fail to read the signs of the

    Times I am living.

    There is something loose

    In the world the world does not

    Know: the antichrist.

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    We think we know it

    But we have no idea of

    What it means to do.

    I said it once

    And I will say it again:

    Yet Christ will abide.

    If I may return:

    The argument of the text

    Is: just simply be.

    Coming to be and

    Passing away are the truth

    Buddha would escape.

    Do not fight your own

    Suffering but do not look

    Away to avoid.

    In poverty I

    Found meaning did not mean to:

    I am not empty.

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    But only Francis

    And a few others loved Her;

    Lady Poverty.

    The kingdom is not

    Of meaning nor is it a

    Senselessness: it IS.

    The word means more than

    Meaning as a concept contains;

    A Sheer Abundance

    That chose poverty

    Instead in order to be

    With us forever.

    To live as we live:

    To take our meaninglessness

    And give us what IS.

    But we stick with a

    Meaning that amounts to our

    Own deconstruction.

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    There is more to say

    But what IS always takes time:

    Even the eternal.

    I wont look into

    The abyss too long since

    I looked into you.

    The book lay open:

    No one there to read the signs:

    The means fell away.

    Trees grow toward light

    But find in the black earth the

    Other half of life.

    I grew toward Him

    Out of sinful soil and love

    For the Autrement.

    But turning away

    From my bad beginning, I

    Look toward what I found.

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    Waterfall above:

    Butterfly at hand: You stood

    Too: essentially ajar.

    Neither this nor that

    Life is not [envois]

    Nor is it a thing itself.

    To descry meaning

    Once more in the name of life

    Is simply senseless.

    The scatter pattern:

    Butterflies and the little

    Flower remind me.

    Is enlightenment

    Life without meaning or the

    Experience of

    Meaninglessness that

    Is still a reason to believe

    Despite the nonsense?

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    God still gives to us

    Meanings never lost again

    But asks our catching.

    If I look for that

    I will never find that:

    Thou art not That when

    That is the lie of

    Eden: that you are Gods and

    That I made myself.

    Through enlightenment

    The darkest deconstruction!

    Am I the measure?

    I think I will yet

    Empty myself of conceit

    And write for the Lord.

    Then without knowing:

    With a hand trained to obey

    Discover His truth.

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    Anticipation

    And His fullness may yet be

    My own completion.

    The Buddha said he

    Was always at beginning

    And so too am I

    He would save the worlds

    From suffering by killing

    Passions and desires.

    Whether there is an

    End to suffering or not

    Is not the issue:

    I risk pain for love:

    I must affirm life as IS

    And love it anyway.

    The experience

    Of pain may not have meaning

    But accessing love.

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    An experience

    Buddha thought was meaningless

    Is the means to love.

    Christ chose it Himself

    Out of love, not to buy back,

    But drink it all down.

    And to show me how

    I can love too both because

    And despite the pain.

    Even though the Buddha

    Did not die and stopped the wheel

    Yet the world still turns.

    And churches come and

    Churches go in the name of Christ

    But no kingdom come.

    They did not live in

    Vain but their lives are not yet

    Understood by me.

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    Perhaps so I might

    Someday understand when I

    Have learned how to love.

    I suffer to love

    And almost love to suffer

    As priests tell us to.

    Forget not Buddha

    Neither Christ nor what was their

    One experience:

    Complete emptiness:

    The way up and the way down

    Are one and the same.

    The obedience

    Of love is greater than faith

    And love can also

    Empty you of self:

    Only empty of self can I

    Carry the abyss.

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    If I could love you

    I would find in you the way

    To experience.

    And yes: the meaning:

    The one word of harmony:

    My reason to be.

    Something more I see

    In the truth of the person

    That you are likely:

    Another Buddha,

    Beneath the tree: or asking

    Christ the cross relieve

    Our sins so we may love

    To forget our meaningless

    Lived experience.

    I think I too thirst

    Like Christ though I am no saint

    And need not freedom:

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    For freedom is not

    The one thing necessary:

    So then why not love?

    Judgment in the way

    Of the way we would love to:

    Choice desire indicts.

    All religions are

    One: to choose between them is

    Admission of guilt.

    Guilty of the lack

    Of love based on judging truth

    Without acceptance.

    Do not choose what to

    Believe: election requires

    Your being chosen.

    Just try not to hurt

    People on the way to where

    You are going to.

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    Am I bothersome?

    I am too full of advice:

    But I think I know.

    The impossible

    God does the impossible:

    Made me so poor rich.

    That I would give Him:

    Paying attention is my

    Way to pray in thanks.

    To write the meaning

    Of meaninglessness is

    To exemplify.

    In paradox I write:

    For I cannot say what the

    Butterfly would say:

    If wings were words and

    She traced sentences in the

    Air instead of beauty.

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    Meaning is judgment

    But experience beauty

    Without copula.

    If you have much to

    Give then give it all away

    From exuberance.

    May God help me speak

    Without judgment though I think

    I have seen the worst.

    Let no false love nor

    Parody of Catholic

    Theology reign.

    I wrote poetry

    Thinking I was in [envois]

    But love was not yet there

    For otherwise why

    Not stay on the mountain with

    The blue butterfly?

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    Searching: possessing

    Lies I thought were truth I was

    Leading her away.

    I could not say I

    Experimented with her

    Beauty as Nietzsche

    Did with the old truths:

    And at least experience

    Called out a warning.

    The life is passing:

    For a moment it is there and

    then it is forever:

    Gone: a memory:

    Is that what butterflies are

    To become for you?

    But I did not know how

    To love the blue butterfly:

    She could have been God.

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    Missing the meaning

    I held to experience

    Trapped in my own self.

    Contradictions are

    Sometimes true but why did I

    Make it my arche?

    I was but a text

    And caught in my own writing

    Effortlessly drowned.

    Until He called halt!

    I turned and became aware

    Of what I was not.

    Which is simply put

    Everything: everything else:

    The world I am not.

    My dream of something

    Outside of me was just the

    Leading vision seen.

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    Oh to write truly

    Of the plainest things I once

    Did not care about

    And not lose His love

    In self-absorbed exhaustion

    And in the ceaseless

    Search to say what I

    Could never say any way I

    Might have tried: that is:

    Let me not feign a

    Meaning while at the same time

    Saying there is none.

    Why not become Light?

    There is only one story:

    It is not about me.

    The clever boy is

    Lost in the meaning of his

    Meaning not knowing.

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    The clever boy is

    Obscured by the brilliance that

    Others meant to say.

    Another boy would

    Wait and not forget: patient

    Longing yet without

    Rushing past the signs

    Of love which all have meaning

    To Him who made them.

    God is good: God alone

    Is good: what does this mean now

    Seen from another

    Point of view? It means:

    At least I can say this much:

    I knowGod is Good.

    To know something is

    Different from not knowing:

    I said I did not

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    And I really did

    Not: but I thought that I did:

    I was a burden.

    I am not the light

    That I must experience

    In order to know.

    I said light does not

    Mean anything and yet by

    It we know all things.

    But I knowthat light

    Is good: I knowit: that light

    Is the light of men.

    The darkness cannot

    Comprehend it and I was

    In complete darkness

    Yet I was writing

    Of my own enlightenment:

    Could I be more wrong?

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    The light is glory:

    The very thing called into

    Question by darkness.

    I did not know how

    Complicit was my blindness

    With what I held true.

    The glory of God:

    Deconstruction and roman

    Deconsecration seek

    Their own glory in

    An anticipation of

    Antichrists to come.

    They will use any

    Means to erase meaning: the

    Simulation of.

    I did not see that

    Meaning and experience

    Are not opposed but

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    Complement: they are

    Not absence against presence

    But ways of knowing

    Truth: by their fruits you

    Shall know them: the meaning

    Of experience

    For a catholic

    Is simply the sacraments:

    But does God need them?

    Who benefits from the

    Catholic economy?

    Only Catholics.

    I loved that little

    Blue butterfly that landed

    On my fingertip

    And had the very

    Experience in itself

    But missed the meaning.

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    He was a signal:

    A messenger: the way that

    God said I love you.

    I turned his sign of

    Love inside-out and said it

    Had no meaning as such:

    That the event did

    Not respire with a meaning

    Because there is none:

    No meaning as such

    But that the butterfly IS

    And to be is not

    To mean but to be

    Another kind of higher

    Emptiness: the Void.

    And now the Roman

    Church is to be made void and

    With it the world too.

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    Both of these abysses

    Of the deconstruction and

    The deconsecration

    Are places that light will

    Not reach: deepest darkest

    Hell: black but on fire.

    These terrible things

    Still mean something: they are rich:

    Because they ruin truth.

    Without truth there will

    Be no more spiritual

    World, and without it:

    No more world of the

    Material either: for

    [envois]

    Not just the world that

    Followed the deconstruction

    And deconsecration:

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    But no more worlds to

    Follow: more void than Buddhas

    Realm: kingdom undone.

    So I look back on

    The world of the time I touched

    The blue butterfly.

    How much I did not

    Know of things to come when that

    World would seem a dream

    And dwell with the God

    In unapproachable light:

    While the context of

    The blue butterfly

    That gives to experience

    The meaning divine

    Was to be torn in

    Two and beauty truth love all

    Lost in delusion.

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    I had thought my own

    Error so damnable in

    Not giving meaning:

    But they do far worse:

    They will say the fine thing but

    They will not mean it.

    Neither Buddha nor

    The catholic line satisfies

    But the Christ alone.

    Seventeen in a

    Stanza stands in the Q and

    Strikes against antichrist.

    A spanner in the

    Works between the sixteen and

    The eighteen so that

    John Paul II and his

    False prophet cannot connect

    The magic number.

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    Call me in the queue:

    Call me edge of seventeen:

    Continuum called

    Q: as a question:

    As a philosophical

    Response to dogma.

    Independence is

    Not in error because the

    Pope isnt honest.

    More catholic than

    The Pope is the church of Q:

    Sans benediction.

    The independent

    Thinker in freedom and in

    Isolation from

    The one and only

    Lie that hinders salvation:

    The papal blessing.

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    He has not any

    Idea of God: but the

    Person of God is

    True and the Pope may

    Not even know what he is

    In compensation:

    For in the spirit

    Of psychology the mind

    Contains both sides of

    The coin: Icons

    Of Christ and the debased on

    The dark side of Him:

    Benedict in His

    Shadow completes the Christ but

    Woe to the man who

    Misunderstands Him:

    Who chooses judgment when love

    Was the wheat to find:

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    And judgment the tare

    To be torn: leave them not till

    The end but remove:

    Remove: tear judgment

    Up by its roots and let it

    Begin in Peter.

    The wolves and the sheep:

    Meaning and experience:

    The wheat and the tares:

    Buddha and the Christ:

    Benighted Benedict

    Blesses in reverse.

    Let Shostakovitch

    Lead my quartet by a string

    From peace to war and

    Back again: to the

    Time of the blue butterfly:

    Neither bought nor sold.

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    I said (for instance)

    That truth is spoken despite

    Us: yet it is said.

    In irony our

    Words echo back to us as

    Derridas laughter.

    I will offend then

    A selection of the work

    In question below:

    No gain: ever lose:

    Further fall: flower she fell:

    [envois]

    They would have us turn

    To chase it up ahead or

    Look into the past:

    Do neither: be here:

    Discern: in the timeliness:

    A temporal shut:

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    Use your illusion:

    Yet you are that though: to be:

    Weary spectacles:

    And so on and so

    Forth: we are witnesses to

    The truth not against:

    Yet truth must be the

    Thing against itself to be

    True to itself: so:

    The pope (God bless him):

    Benighted Benedict:

    Enlightened no one:

    And over him rose

    The thorn of contradiction:

    The nobody rose:

    O care of the soul:

    Benediction petrified:

    Peters blessing stone:

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    To the prophecy

    Of Celan and in dialogue

    With Derrida and

    Two infinities:

    That the poet saw the pope

    And the end of him.

    Rams: beasts: petrified:

    He would raise the rock to strike

    The flock and scatter:

    Uninterrupted:

    Derrida too foresaw the

    One to come but hidden in

    His text were the keys

    Of the abyss: as always

    Already he said:

    Such is the law of

    The text: to hide the hest from

    Every first comer:

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    However oblique

    In approach: even from the

    Envois on he came

    To re veal the lamb

    Not quite as serious as

    The pope: for the text

    Would ever contain

    The evil which was the real

    Reason for writing.

    As the mind in two

    The janus faced coin of an

    Exergue to come:

    Psyche and spirit:

    Inseparable: heaven

    Is in your mind and

    The simulacrum

    Of the text is a way to

    Decontaminate.

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    My life will therefore

    Have been a scandal to them

    Who judge it to be:

    But Christ himself was

    So and a sign to contradict

    The acting pope said.

    The acting pope of

    The coup, as the church rolled dice

    At the foot of the

    Cross and gambled for His

    Vestments and investiture:

    Antinomians.

    And in mystic fashion

    Described fascist projection:

    A transmutation

    Of the sacred to

    The transubstantiation

    Of the golden Christ

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    Into basest coin:

    Defaced the icons: profaned

    The sanctuary:

    If life is Christ then

    Sacramental grace is here

    When we truly live:

    Sacraments give life:

    Presence: God amid His Church:

    Now surely elsewhere:

    Where grace is lasting:

    Arise: trust in the Lord: take

    Up your mat and walk:

    Your faith will save you:

    Leave the church and sin no more:

    Do not look back but

    Carry light salt seed

    In order to scatter the

    Others in: to God.

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    Late have I left thee

    O Ecclesia: but not

    Too late I still pray.

    One startling serene

    Still one remained just for me

    Among the roses.

    She I say but one:

    No other: neither word nor

    Fragment: She: Woman:

    Say untouched by time

    Until a small voice whispered

    Get and go: See.

    Destiny in it:

    She went and me she continued

    In what we didnt say.

    If they say she wore

    Black and I wore red theyd be

    Half-right: we revolt.

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    She will always be

    Further than the East, like

    Sins flung far away:

    He knows me better

    But she could not help but sign

    The blank I left blank:

    I waited and she

    Came: out of time: without the

    Least direction: straight:

    A rebel though she

    Knew it not and ready to

    Build back the torn down.

    Almost not quite just

    Barely yonder: the way come

    Passing over all:

    When you find me say

    He did not know his way yet

    Arrived after all.

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    In the dialectic

    Of fascism are three moments:

    Nietzsche: Hitler: and

    Joseph Ratzinger:

    His name says it all: O rats!

    The Thesis of the

    Nietzschean seemed to

    Reach fruition in the reich:

    But antithesis

    Is never enough:

    The synthetic matrix in

    Deconsecration

    Suspends the body

    Of Christ in an illusion

    Of the pious fraud:

    And Jewish rapture

    Left behind only the Church

    Militant to blame.

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    The weird news is this:

    Closure is trying to take

    Place: with only Q

    Between: the hated

    Number of Pythagoras:

    The most random one:

    Between the added

    Two of the beast and the false

    Prophets sixteen stands

    The seventeenth to

    Keep closure from occurring

    As Ulysses said:

    For the point is yet:

    And indicated: where? Here:

    Just before MB

    And the nightlong song

    That may yet end in a Yes:

    Yet not affirmation:

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    For after the yes

    What took place in the text of

    Joyce but the wake that

    Is the funeral

    Of the world: in the text mind

    You: every word counts:

    Ultrastructure is:

    And there is nothing else but:

    The Ultrastructure.

    The Q if you would

    Describes a circle effracted:

    A line laid across:

    The economy

    Must be broken: the meaning

    Of the catholic

    Church exposed inside

    And out for revelation:

    It will be released.

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    To be said: a new

    Direction when I spoke of

    Augustine: Arrive.

    The circle as such

    Cannot arrive as it is

    Forever turning:

    But if it closes

    It will trap those in it in an

    Economic Hell.

    Effraction is now.

    Disclosure of the fact is

    Enough in theory:

    Symbolic therefore

    Real: the ideality

    of literature:

    The line being laid

    Against the antichrist ties

    The sovereignties.

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    To save the Church will

    Require true discernment for

    This we pray O Lord.

    I broke the Church

    Open and exposed its heart:

    Now let me repair:

    Let is not be dashed

    Against the cornerstone but

    Built upon the rock:

    A new and better

    Than Peter is in ruins

    Of a truth I loved.

    O Christ you are true

    And faithful and so I write

    The line that must be

    The sole arbiter

    Of meaning: my fixed point of

    Reference: my all.

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    By crossing his orb

    With a line of reference

    I shatter the globe:

    The impossible:

    If the pope refuses to stand

    In the queue like the

    Rest of us, then he

    Will find certain Q and A:

    A question for the

    Antichrist: Answer:

    Where are the miracles Ben?

    Are they yet hidden?

    Something in the bread

    And wine? Show me miracles

    Benedict: Show me.

    A church without truth:

    A church without miracles:

    So a line is laid.

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    For it knows of me

    And what I am doing since

    The archive has no

    Corner in which to

    Hide: so: if the circle of

    circular letters:

    The encyclical

    Of the Marian Dogma

    Has been prevented

    By prevenient

    Grace: the circle at eighteen

    Is inachevee:

    The antichrist is

    Incomplete: on the other

    Hand he may force it:

    And attempt closure

    At any rate: But truth stands

    In the way of it.

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    Truth stands in the Q:

    Batailles story of rats and

    Deconsecration:

    The impossible:

    God works in mysterious

    Ways: The text abides.

    Heraclitus said

    The most beautiful thing is

    Just this pile of junk.

    Peter opposed

    His hierarchy to it:

    But Peter will fall:

    To democracy:

    To the freedom of the text:

    To the witnesses:

    Only by keeping

    Everything out of his pure

    Fraud could he succeed.

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    Even denying

    The words of the Lord by

    Interpretation.

    The salt has lost its

    Savor though: and the savior

    Tramples under foot.

    The secret archive

    Of the Vatican opens

    To disclose nothing.

    Ashes to ashes

    And dust to dust: they forged the

    Claim: Usurpation.

    They cannot forge the

    Blue butterfly or take the

    Hand I held away.

    For there is in the

    Chance occurrence a sign of

    The one mind; One Face:

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    Types and symbols of

    Eternity: as we cross

    The circle and break

    The chain that would bind

    The sovereignties:

    All moving as one.

    We are already past

    The point of the watershed:

    Down the mountain then:

    For she awaits us:

    Shall I say Jerusalem?

    She is no Roman:

    We will all descend

    Together now to the vale

    Of the decision:

    Armagiddeon

    Time is not told by the clock

    But tolled in a text.

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    Meaning and Experience,

    Part 2

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    The story of the

    Blue butterfly and my search

    Has been a twisted path.

    It has been about

    Meaning and experience,

    But a whole lot more.

    To make sense of my

    Place in the world and what I

    Believe to be real,

    What I call really

    Real, God, or the ultimate,

    Is not easy.

    I have tried to say

    It is an event, like the

    Moment of contact

    Between my finger

    And the butterfly, which was

    A sort of lucky

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    Break, or else it was

    A predestined moment known

    In eternity.

    It was either chance,

    Or part of Gods plan and how

    Is one to discern?

    Is it possible?

    Does it matter why or how

    The beauty happens?

    Is that to look for

    The dreaded meaning behind

    Sheer experience,

    An unwarranted

    Posit or explanation

    That actually

    Hinders living life

    To the full, trapping me in

    My own opinion?

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    And yet I feel that

    Experience without

    Meaning is lacking,

    Something animals

    Have, for instance, so humans

    To play their part must,

    Though it is a task,

    Not simply erase their minds

    Like a good Buddha.

    Neither do I feel

    I should become entangled

    In endless moral

    Wrangling about the

    Theological and the

    Metaphysical.

    Neither consciousness

    Nor conscience are sufficient

    For my paradigm.

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    On the same page of

    My dictionary appears

    Along with these words

    Connectivity.

    The blue butterfly and I

    Made a connection.

    This simple insight

    Matches so much in the world

    You already know.

    But its been said, dont

    Overlook the obvious.

    If in what comes next,

    I make connections

    Between many different

    Things, its in order

    To say something not

    About connectivity,

    But what it connotes.

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    There is the one mind

    And there is the mind of Christ.

    They are not the same.

    There is another

    Which is evident in the

    History of thought,

    The conceptual

    Itself, you might say, or the

    Philosophic mind.

    It is so widely

    Distributed throughout our

    World it seems to be

    Necessary, but

    It is only one way of

    Thinking, not without

    Its adherents and

    Proofs of utility in

    Argumentations,

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    Such as making war,

    Making money, buying votes

    And condemning sinners.

    However, the one

    To come, in apocalypse,

    Will displace the mind

    Of mammon with the

    Mind of Christ, a thinking so

    Different from the way

    It is commonly

    Conceived, because it resists

    The concept as such.

    I will approach its

    Disclosure in an oblique

    Way, through catholic

    Theology, which

    I have found conceals more than

    It reveals of Christ.

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    Herewith a twisted

    Path made straight for Gods glory,

    And not for my own.

    The butterfly does

    Sometimes sit still, but never

    Long. Arise and go.

    I did not intend,

    But attention came to be.

    The mind at rest works.

    There is a truth in

    The gift of experience.

    Receive the giving.

    A what does it mean?

    Always falls short of the thing

    Which abides alone.

    A person emerges

    From out of nowhere like a

    Sudden thunderclap.

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    He came and he saw

    And he conquered sin and death

    So that we might live.

    Let us live for Him

    In Spirit and in truth as

    He said wed worship.

    Engaged to the groom

    Who waits at the altar in

    His supreme patience.

    O the patience Hes

    Shown in the centuries since

    The time of the cross.

    Repent and believe

    Is what he said to us then.

    We must turn around.

    Before I am through

    I will have described that turn,

    And a further one.

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    Lord Jesus my truth

    And the truth of these stanzas

    Which desire but you,

    Help me know and serve

    Unceasingly the salvation

    In your very Mind,

    The wonderful things

    Youve done for all your creatures

    Out of your one love.

    Things new and old show

    Forth, yet who am I to take

    Truth upon my lips?

    Cleanse me for your truth,

    As a prophet would be cleansed

    To be your vessel,

    And let these words be

    True but also sometimes let

    Them be beautiful.

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    There is no greater

    Word in the scriptures than

    The word of your truth.

    So, let us not be

    Fearful of things present or

    Past or things to come,

    For all of these things

    You have willed in the one act

    Of the creation.

    Let us be patient

    Humble of mind and in heart

    And wait on your Word,

    Which your Spirit, I

    Pray may reveal today for

    Its accomplishment,

    Your purpose in this

    Work, which I hope you will bless

    And accept. Amen.

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    Peppered with prayer,

    Salted with fire: Grace and truth

    Came by Jesus Christ.

    Let me do no less

    And yet no more than you will:

    Not a mere poem

    May this be, but in

    Time and eternity, a

    Way of your break through.

    A witness to grace

    And to the transformation,

    The once and future.

    May saints help me here

    To allow you to take place

    In me and the work.

    May Mary your mother

    Give birth to me and the mind

    You want me to have.

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    For the time is now:

    The night is advanced and day

    Approaches. Salvation

    Is more than the church

    Can bear, so let the human

    Mind itself bring forth.

    So long awaited

    And yet almost prevented

    By Christianity,

    Is it not time we

    Die rather than not allow

    The coming glory?

    This all consuming

    Renewal resurrection

    Will no longer wait.

    What would Jesus do?

    You would show us how to be

    The first to arrive.

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    Let me pick up bits

    Of text, obeying not them, but

    Whatever you will.

    To have excluded

    The academic middle

    Is a very song.

    The suffocation

    Of the discursive need not

    Limit mindfulness.

    To pronounce a name

    Is not to know a thing but

    Perhaps to invoke

    You, O Lord, my word

    Which reaches all through language,

    Though my selection

    And reception of

    The truth available lacks

    The great attunement.

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    Perhaps our teachers

    Warned us of this, of the trials

    Attending knowledge.

    It is in the names

    Of things that they have their

    Being, as defined,

    And so it is with

    Us, we exist in a net

    Of fateful signing.

    For revelation

    Needs revealability.

    Language is this and

    Not this alone but

    The mystical way that you

    Contain all being

    In a writing and

    Reading, which is why we were

    Given the scriptures.

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    Theology known

    As the via negativa

    Is not negative

    But surrender to

    That which is greater than our

    Definitions stand.

    Scripture cannot be

    Set aside may mean not that

    It is inerrant

    In particulars

    But that that the paradigm

    Of the Bible is.

    In this I would then

    Be mistaken to erase

    All meaningfulness,

    To reach nirvana,

    Which may yet be attained though

    Despite contradiction.

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    The negative way

    Says we really cant know God,

    While the example

    Of scripture suggests

    That God communicates God

    To us, not just laws,

    And the goal of the

    Void, means erasure of self,

    Individual

    Identity, and

    I think all of this coheres,

    In the Mind of Christ.

    As I am I will

    Not know God, who contains all

    Like the Bible does,

    So excessive is

    He that I must be changed to

    Contain, not control,

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    Him. In decontrol

    I will decontaminate,

    And in connection,

    The ensemble of

    The immortals hitherto

    Confined to Heaven,

    At the limits of

    Experience, will break

    Forth not as madness,

    Or as the reserve

    Of saints, but as God With Us,

    Divinization.

    We have seen what this

    Looks like in a few at times,

    Now it will engulf

    All, in the great

    And terrible day, not of

    Judgment but of peace.

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    War will end, that day,

    No one will be able to

    Think it anymore.

    Swords will become plow

    Shares and God will wipe away

    Every tear and trace.

    The transformation

    Seen in the brain by science,

    In technology,

    In the connections

    Between people, are signs of

    What is taking place.

    We will give up all

    We know and have and are, so

    That God may be here,

    For He loves so much

    That He wants us completely.

    He brooks no rival.

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    Contemporary

    Culture presents foreboding

    Futures of our end.

    And so it seems, to

    That which has held sway in the

    Mind, hitherto, now

    Desperate at change

    That it fought so long and hard,

    But which must be pitched

    Into the abyss

    And chained for the coming of

    The Kingdom of Christ.

    The change I believe

    In is not a candidates

    Promise or slogan.

    It will end power,

    It will end world politics,

    It will save our souls.

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    It will happen at

    Once, at a day and hour we

    Know not. Be ready.

    The destruction of

    The church is almost complete,

    As Daniel foretold.

    When it is total,

    The end will not be long, and

    The way to it clear.

    Yet some will refuse,

    As John says, saying they must

    Go back for something.

    When so much awaits,

    What could possibly keep us

    From our wedding day?

    In the hour of the

    Decision you must have then

    Already lived it.

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    Meaning and Experience,

    Part 3

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    The gifts of God are

    All of them good, and so

    She, too, came to me.

    All human being

    Absorbed in righteousness shines

    With the Face of Christ.

    O Little Flower,

    You loved and worshipped the Child

    And His Holy Face.

    I Worship on a

    Mountain that may yet pass.

    Mountains pass slowly,

    Though not all pass in

    That way, and this mountain needs

    Your flower: Remain.

    There was a sister,

    Teresa Benedicta

    Of the Cross, a Saint.

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    Every flake of snow

    Falls in one declination

    Despite buffeting.

    Saints are like snowflakes,

    Unique, undefiled, falling

    Into Gods embrace.

    Mirrors in mirrors,

    We shine from our origin:

    Endless, trackless, light.

    Snow mirrors light, white

    On white on white, though sometimes

    Saints are like sunsets,

    Red, bathed in fire and

    Having a purity wrought

    In violence, yet

    Inviolate, though

    Murdered, still unprofaned, and

    Having redemption.

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    Even as death takes

    Us away, without shadow

    Of semblance remained,

    Why not far rather

    The void or bliss in heaven

    To lose oneself in?

    If I realize

    I am nothing already,

    Without transition,

    Then I need not the

    Turn or reversal to come

    As I approach her.

    All in all, to be,

    Lost in Him, for as long as

    I am He is not.

    Already naked,

    She bows a little to hide

    In beautys shadow,

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    Just as between the

    Inside and the outside pure

    Virginity reigns.

    Nothing as humble

    As a virgin made to stand

    Awaiting darkness.

    She let her love come

    Unbound, and so did flourish.

    Bridges of crossing,

    To bridge the cross of

    The see of troubles not yet

    Seen in our ending,

    To be our reproach

    To the entanglement of

    The imbroglio,

    The imbrications

    Of a time that did not seal

    The concealment of.

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    Form itself is not,

    Nor the merely assembled,

    But beauty and want

    Make these visions seem

    The telos of destiny.

    But what stands behind?

    The unshaped shapes shape:

    Which is why He must be In-

    Comprehensible,

    And why they who have

    Not seen but believe are blessed,

    As He said theyd be.

    They thought they saw her,

    But she was seen by God in

    In eternity.

    In His vision she

    Was holy, but they did not

    Recognize the Saint.

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    She fit with Him and

    He drew with her a drawing

    Divinely figured.

    In a bracketing

    Of the idea of

    Sensuality,

    Experience is,

    And allows the vision seen

    Not only by Him.

    She became vision.

    We can only accuse the

    Owning in her light.

    As she arrived, she

    Not only told it so, but

    Neither turning, showed.

    Her means were not void,

    Though her experience meant

    Death, as if to mean

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    Almost more than she

    Could mean, and almost more than

    Meaning could allow.

    She is not a text.

    She interprets us, and shapes

    Us to time to come,

    Because grasped closer

    And held more tightly, she is

    Impressed with His skill

    At making martyrs

    Witness before and after

    He has let them go,

    In abandonment,

    Not to providence, but to

    A great emptiness,

    A Christ in person,

    Already breaking through veils

    Then, now, everywhere.

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    Neither religious,

    Nor political, nor yet

    Philosophical,

    But personally

    Was the pain inflicted, as

    She stood first in line.

    Light and dark reject

    Knowledge so bestowed on one

    Who, having known them,

    Was led to a place

    Where they do not make sense and

    Never will again.

    Not in this life, or

    In the next, where there are no

    Need of sun or moon,

    Nor will the gates be

    Ever shut, as all light is

    Like Hers, held within.

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    I do not think she

    Had a quarrel with dying,

    Or with the killers.

    It is a question

    Whether we do, or should, or

    Whether to forgive.

    What happened then is

    Happening again, larger

    In scope and hidden.

    They do not kill our

    Bodies now but steal our souls,

    Or make as if to.

    Already raptured,

    The good is gone. We await

    Appropriation,

    The promised advent

    Of what is said to be screened

    By being is near.

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    And the Janus face

    Of the gate of the Roman

    God stands at the door.

    But it is not his

    Beginning, almost over,

    That is occurring.

    The fait accompli

    Was thought to be a machine

    To engulf the world.

    The fateful meeting

    Of man and technology,

    Greatness inherent,

    Now can just be heard,

    In a very quiet place

    Where