Balance

Like a crow

I steal

but my coin is cleverness 

and you are the keeper 

of the storehouse of knowledge 

with your collection of keys

and the histories that you launch towards me

in emails that float like paper boats

over the rivulets of the internet.

Small wonder that I desire to loft

in the wake of your flight

that my way may be easier

in order to journey

ever more swiftly through the doorways

of both enlightenment and obscurity 

each kind calling to me 

one with its mysteries

and the other its revelations.

How lovely that the world we see

should have both light and dark 

to balance it and give shape to 

suffering and to pleasure alike 

so we may make our way to the pinnacle 

of the mountain and side by side

look down across the valley of inspiration

unfolding before us 

its colors shifting as the light crosses it 

beneath the moon

and the sun.

So may our hearts be healed 

where the soul of the world 

pours down from the snow-packed peaks 

and there where the sky is all about us

we are surrounded by freedom 

the seal of which will burn into our spirit

and we will carry that wildness 

inside us until the end of days

using it like an instrument to create 

artistry that wakes the sleeping and calls them 

out of their beds.