Encountering the Spirit

It will not matter if you call it
the Cosmic Mystique,
the language of silence
or an occasion of grace.

If for you there is no place
like Om, that will do as well.
The same law of attraction
that led you to the love of your

life and helps you find the best
burger in town calls and guides
you into an authentic encounter
with the Sacred. Every question

you have about who you are,
what you are, what you're doing
here and what life means compels
you toward a blissful experience,

a mystery that will both envelop
and dwell within you. It will call
you by name, help you understand
that God does not dwell in you like

a raisin in a bun but as the ocean
is to a wave - and help you grasp
that are not the sea and that what
you are could not be without it.

Praying in the Light of the Moon

You are one of the sacred proofs
that the cosmos and I have come
from the same stuff, the same will
of universe to be a moon in one place

and a man in another. Life is filled
with transcendent temptations, urges
to wander through endless questions
dripping with so many possible right

answers, they can outlast our ability
to ask them. I long to tell you we are
one planet and one people, that divine
forces have had such close encounters

with us, we had no choice but to seek
silver linings and rid ourselves
of the arrogance of temporal power.
Instead, I must confess that we still

have dragons for sale, kings who lie
to us, cities built from sheer revenge
and religions that thrive on pennies
from the poor and the ignorance of

others. Still, we try to build temples
where we can celebrate what you have
made of us, and wonder if you are
in any way what we have made of you.

Fredrick Zydek is the author of eight collections of poetry. T'Kopechuck: the Buckley Poems is forthcoming from Winthrop Press later this year. Formerly a professor of creative writing and theology at the University of Nebraska and later at the College of Saint Mary, he is now a gentleman farmer when he isn't writing. He is the editor for Lone Willow Press.

Email: Fredrick Zydek

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