All the Prophets Say

All the prophets say we are deluded.

We think we understand our selves,

our minds,  the world that seems to be

outside us, but, no, we don’t,

and never know we don’t.

I can believe with Hopkins

That there dwells down deep in us

A freshness or a diamond.

Perhaps many more have felt it

Than I or anyone has guessed, but,

not knowing its name, because

It has no name, they speak of it

Only to the very few they trust.

I think the Lamed-vov

Tzaddikim, are among them

The daily mind we think is our self,

Pursuing the daily round that’s never new,

believes it’s self-contained

and separate from the Gods.

The belief is the separation,

A mask protecting us from the angel

with his sword of light, guarding

the gates of Eden in ourselves,

Save for the moments when the Poetic

Genius, as Blake called Her,

gifts us with an insight, soft or

overwhelming,  that is real and new.

But in fact we are not separate.

We are one immortal being whom Blake

called the Giant Albion, housed in,

at last count, eight billion bodies.

Perhaps Albion knows the thoughts

Of other angels in the universe.

Albion is multitudes within us, gods,

Goddesses, saints, angels, demons, all

The same being, both One and Many,

Guiding our lives along pathways

Whose purpose we may never understand.

We can know we are not separate.

When two people join unselfishly in love,

When the two become one flesh, one soul

in two bodies, as Jesus or someone

said,  just as we know sunlight

and need not merely believe in it,

They can know that they are one, not two,

That separation is the illusion.

Sometimes the Poetic Genius or the Muse

Or the Holy Spirit, by whatever name

You call Her, thenWakes them up

Into selves that know we are the Gods.

The Gods gift us with Awakening

When they think we need it,

To save our lives or give us

A task to pursue, but not

when we merely think we want it,

because we’ve heard rumors

about it—but how can we want

What we cannot imagine exists?

Awakening is always a gift.

No one knows why we can’t

Just decide to awaken.

Perhaps the Gods are only trying

To keep us from hurting ourselves.