SOLSTICE LAMENT

I never noticed shadows so long
That played against the bright sunlight in a strobe effect
At 8:30 PM this longest day of the year
Driving home after the outdoor concert in a parking lot
The tree shadows against the sunlight rapid
Driving me into nearly an altered state of mind
But I had to stay in this world, as I was on the road
And the natural strobe effect could have disastrous
Consequences if I didn’t keep my mind on the road
It was no time to notice the eerie light
Almost another dimension, maybe so to Druidic Salisbury Plain
And the Stonehenge alignments break sunrise through
Enigmatic megaliths and over the heel stone only today
I’d build a monument to such another dimension of light
I wish my city had some way to reverence the Solstice
That I had some way to reverence it
That my church had some way to reverence it
So there would be more than a natural strobe effect
On my consciousness driving among blacktop and trees.
And that’s it.  Me noticing strange shadows playing against sunlight
At 8:30 PM, driving on the blacktop road

“Great God I’d rather be a pagan suckled in a creed outworn!”

But I’m not.  Driving home, after the parking lot concert,
In bright sunlight at 8:30, noticing eerie, long shadows—
The longest I’ve ever observed before playing against the sunlight.
Too much science, too much technology, too many quotidian days,
Only small print on a wall calendar announcing the first day of summer

THE TREASURE OF MY HEART

I bought a t-shirt when I visited Stonehenge

A carved Mayan god of volcanic rock at Chichen Itza

On the Parthenon mount, a ceramic replica of a Grecian urn

A cross in Notre Dame Cathedral

At the Parliament of the World’s Religions, a golden Amitabha

And at a second Parliament, Buddhist prayer beads

 

I was blessed, as are many, with an inheritance gift

For some, it would mean a new car

Others, a big house

Still others, a resort on the Riviera

For me, it was Stonehenge, Notre Dame, and the Parthenon

(Chichen Itza and the Parliaments were largely on my own dime)

“Where your treasure is, there your heart will be”

My treasure was, indeed, spent at the promptings of my heart

 

I wanted to listen for ancient mystic Celts

Touch the stars the Mayans recorded

Walk where Socrates, Sophocles, Aristophanes, Themistocles, Pericles, and the peripatetics perambulated

Breathe in the Spirit of Christian beauty

Hear Indigenous teachings, Vedanta, ritual dance, eat at a Sikh Langar, commune with fellow pilgrims

And did, the expense paying its dividends where neither rust nor moth can corrupt