“And so you’ve come.”

“Yes,” is all I say.
I’ve learned not to blather,
Even as my heart races
And I long to run to his embrace.
To be acknowledged and truly seen
Suffices at this moment.

“Come,” he beckons,
Descending mossy steps
To the spring-fed well he tends.

“Drink,” he motions,
As I kneel beside crystal waters
And lift the clear elixir to my lips.

This is the moment of acceptance,
When past and present-future all converge
In a single realization

of identity and promise,
of prelude and obligation,
of possibility and discernment.

spoken from the razor’s edge
where all is lost or won,
where victory and defeat
are sistered in appearance
until their shawls come off.

“I will,” he answers my heart’s plea,
Placing ancient hands of holy water
On my brow and whispering my new name.

“Now go and come back when I call you.

“You will know what to do,
and where and when,
with the blessing of hospitality
as your surety and guide.

“Feel it in your heart and follow where it leads.
Stoke the inner fires and do the radical thing.
I will be there in the water and the flame
As I have always, ever been.”

Listen as Cheryl reads the poem
from Poetics of Soul & Fire