Fourth of July

July 4, 2024  5:10AM

Predawn readings concluded with these reflections;

The Flying Change ends with “steep return”

After having mused on the aim for perfect freedom.

In concert, Palmer's Oriental Mysticism

Guides our self-search homeward-bound.

That lifting off as human/horse power join

Sweetly, as if held in God's hand, soft–

Dare we imagine life, not mean, beloved

   From E.H. Palmer: “The Universe is the mirror of God, and the heart of man is the mirror of the Universe; if the Traveller then would know God, he must look into his own heart; if he would know the light, he must look into his own heart” (p. 41, Oriental Mysticism).

   In the title poem from his Pulitzer Prize, The Flying Change, Henry Taylor reminds the traveller: “Turning at liberty, [the horse] can change leads without effort during the moment of suspension, but a rider’s weight makes this more difficult. The aim of teaching a horse to move beneath you is to remind him how he moved when he was free” (p. 50).

   Midnight meditations the night before considered that love in essence focuses the quality that enables the (re)union with the One. It’s that which prepares, matures, and cleans so that the person better discerns the Presence and more fully engages the beloved.The “beyond” can only be approached, neared, by hint, by scent or taste, because it belongs to the Unknown, to the inarticulable, as the Infinite, as any and each of the Ninety-Nine Names. None can be owned. Vigilance must diligently prevent the making of idols out of the unique and ephemeral. Drive on. No hoarding of spent treasures. The beating heart won't abide in rag and bone shops.