Michael Maxwell Steer

Could I but spin a golden melody
from myself as a spider draws
her silken web, whose very flaws
make perfect records of her busy body.
...

When the everyday miracle, love, strikes
all the resonant chords within us chime
and even the tawdry ruts of likes and dislikes
dissolve into harmonies of rhyme.
...

As you go over the rim of the sea
into the dark ocean
I wave and wave
but the tide that bears you does not turn back.
...

In the temple of this life
Honour your inward focus.
'Twas already late when day awoke us,
Don't wait for th'arrival of night.
...

Ahha! The muse has not left. I float in mid-night knowledge
as a soul adrift in prayer holds conscious intent
wordlessly, directing it by desire alone.
...

Fear is the golden thread that leads us into the centre of the labyrinth
where the unnameable beast lurks -
the indefinable otherness whom we must approach fearlessly.
...

Droplets falling on a high sierra:

Have they density to form a rivulet?
Has it innergy to sustain a stream?
...

What we desire most in the world
is the happiness of our children -
it's in their eyes that we're reborn.
Each new world birth embodies hope
...

A wedding's fragile glory
is a lotus blossoming
before your very eyes -
a crescendo of drumming
...

Slowly as casual voices decline
a silence steals across the room,
flooding the space with richest wine
and colouring the garden with sunlit blossom.
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The wind that beats around my house this wicked night
Flings snow across the northern hills encompassing
Whole cities in an icy paralysis, freezing
Traffic to the road like surreal sculpture
...

Lord in your mercy hear our prayer.

At its wits' end, the soul clings to prayer
as a drought-stricken wilderness clings to life.
...

The buzz of greeting declines
as people detach themselves
From the outer world
and one by one dive into the silence -
...

A high wide arc the buzzard made
above the down, swooping & turning
ceaselessly, its wings outsplayed
as if in melancholy yearning.
...

A man who wanted no memorial is surrounded by friends.
A man who cherished solitude is enveloped by attention.
A man dubious about music is given a choral send off.
...

In this tree a single bird
with dancing song-almost unheard-
swoops & thrills its deepest leaves
with the enchanting tune she weaves.
...

I am faint from awaiting my lover's arrival:
my whole existence is focused on meeting.
Why the delay? I know I've no rival,
yet life is on hold till that moment of greeting.
...

My friend, when I was ignorant
my teacher showed me the inner path:
then I abandoned rituals. Who'd want
superstition in place of faith?
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If God is within the mosque, who is without?
If Ram is the object of your pilgrimage,
who journeys with you? Are the devout
rewarded only by place and image?
...

The name that can't be uttered is unique.
How then to comprehend the formless?
What name for the circle that has no circumference?
...