The Prophet's Summer Discourse Poem by Daniel Brick

Here is your God: He is coming
to save you. For water will gush
into the desert and streams
into the wastelands. A road
will run through the rescued
land, a highway called
the Sacred Road. Shouting for joy,
the redeemed will use it...

ISAIAH 35: 4,6,8

I
I have an obscure feeling of being
protected... As my mind sifts through
details of EXPERIENCE, it locates traces
of safety threatened and fear increasing,
and both are suddenly calmed, rendered
peaceful, within and without. How long
does this mood prevail? In the early days,
it dissipated in the time it took a cup
of coffee to cool. Rarely did it last
into the next day. I often observed
its bright presence diminish like the day
as it faded into twilight...
But duration is not the issue: what matters
is your perception of RESCUE. Perception itself
can be a sudden fire that flares and climbs,
but suddenly is reduced to smolders. Or it can be
a modest fire that flames modestly for hours.
Whatever we perceive, we must be grateful for it,
and seek out the causes for our gratitude.

This may not satisfy any of you listening now,
but it must be said at this moment: I AM NOT ALONE
IN THIS ENDEAVOR, NOR AM I ACCOMPANIED.
If that statement strikes as a riddle, solve it.
If it strikes you as nonsense, excuse yourself
and make breakfast for all of us. If you perceive it
as a prophecy, be patient a little longer.

II
Why is so many of you succumb
to despair, when life displays
so much natural abundance? You scurry
about, satisfying temporal needs as if
each day were an end in itself, and
each night your existence sinks
deeper. How did you become so small?
Why does the Prophet's faith not swell
within you? Why do you sit in repose
on the knife's edge? Do you witness
the flowering of desire which blooms
in the life of the Priestess? How is it
you walk through a grove of trees and
hear nothing? When will you grasp fully:
You are not alone in this endeavor?

III
Why do you nurture false hopes, when
genuine hopes can be harvested by you
every season? Are you so stuffed with
wanton illusion, you cannot stomach
the pure bread of communion? Do you persist
in living small lives as if you were limited
beings? When will you simply unfold your wings
and soar aloft in the awareness:
You are not accompanied.