The New Life Stage Six Part Two For Marie Poem by Daniel Brick

HIS HOPES

My friend courted a silent muse.
He saw her wide-eyed beauty
as she bent low to bless his hidden heart.

She appeared... there,
in those empty places
where he had sought her presence.

She turned and smiled into the sun.
Her robe shimmered between white
and yellow. It was an emblem

of inner seasons passing into love.
Did he kneel as he offered
her a sign promising tomorrows?

After writing his first poem
in four months, Daniel considered
tossing it. Then reconsidered
on re-reading, and left it
on his small table, when
he lay down on his cot,
exhausted from Spirit Flight.
When he awoke in the night,
there was Monica, her back
to him, sitting in his chair,
reading his poem...
'Are you very mad
at me? she said softly.
'I'm not mad at you.
I haven't seen you for months.
I've been preoccupied.' Daniel
said loftily, 'I'm wrestling
either with myself,
or with the Universe. I can't
tell which one.' Monica
laughed, turning
to face him with
her smiling summer face.
'Daniel, I'm here to tell you
you graduated with honors, or
you've been promoted to
the Head Office, or the war is over
and you can go home. Take your pick.
But I want you back in the Twin Cities,
back to writing poetry in your favorite
coffee shops, and especially back
in sync with The Community. Do you
think you can handle that? in a week or two? '
Daniel ran his fingers vigorously
through his hair. 'Well, the only problem
I can see - and it's huge - is I'm
out of touch being with people. Because
of my Spirit Flights. It takes hours
to recover my Earth bearings. When people
visit, they never stay long enough.
And that causes misunderstandings.'
'The Community contacted me, all of them
alarmed.' Daniel was fully composed.
'Monica, these past four months
have been my NIGHT SEA VOYAGE!
I accelerated my efforts to master.
Spirit Flight. That meant a bitter
bargain: I had to shut down my poetic
activity to heighten my shamanic
ability. But you know with the small things
clustered inside of me, no harm can happen,
and I believe they function like a reverse
magnet, repelling the inherent evil
stalking us.' Monica's closed her eyes
briefly in relief. 'And I thought you
were angry at me, and the The Community,
and the whole enterprise we serve... '
'Monica, what I am doing, these austerities,
this time of AGON, is to serve better...
You can listen to the small things.
They know: I have walked calmly
and swiftly through the larger world
you forecast for me. I have swum in
lakes of warm yellow liquids, crossed
mighty rivers at floodtide as if
by magic. Hills and mountains posed
no obstacles for me, and I lavished
my new eyes on vistas as dizzying as
anything in outer space. Water-falls and
fire-falls crashed in my path, clouds
thick enough to roll in, and grassy
meadows that intoxicated me as I wandered,
huge storms of lightning in dry deserts -
all these things I witnessed. And I was
never fatigued or fearful or depressed.
My mind was washed clear, my soul polished
to its native brightness. I communed
with strange beasts, whose howls, bellows,
whines, whose whistles, cries and songs
were eloquent past imagining. I responded
by reciting Shakespeare and Yeats, and we
bonded! ' Daniel was rapt, revealing
finally his dazzling life. Monica became
increasingly excited with his telling.
She embraced him for only a moment,
but to him it was sweetness past imagining.
'Daniel, I am, and always will be
your Anima.... '