The Hour Of Battle
Danny Maseng (c) 1999

Word to the weary - wake up!
This is the hour of battle -
This is the hour of the wolf
Sleep - and the light goes out -
Rest - and the world is dark - Sing!
Where is the power of good?
How does the heart grow strong?
When the voice is weak the heart is blind
What the heart won't see will kill it - Sing!
The voice is the voice, but the hands...
The power of Jacob is in the voice
Lose your pride, Jacob, raise your voice
Raise your voice and bring on the light

A Playful Psalm
Danny Maseng (c) 1999

Hey, you! Hey, you!
Hey, you on high - come down here you on high and I on low,
Down low and you are high
That's no way for a you and me to be
That's no way for a me to be with thee, with thou
I thought this was a two thing being one on one
Not you and me divided
My beloved is for me, you know, and I'm for you
Not me in beige and you in blue
Hey, you - What's with the distance?
What's with the attitude, your altitudiness?
Come out, come out wherever you be,
Whatever you are,
Whenever you is you was the wiz,
The one, the star!
Numero Uno, Domine Allah
You the name!
Echad, Wachad,
My Dharma essence, Brahmanescence, Effervescence,
Rex Tremendis, holy Tatta Mamma sister spirit -
Drop the veil, cause of causes - Jump the gap
Pull up a chair, a mat, a Zafu,
Make yourself at - you know,
Stay a while, what's the rush?
The similes can wait, the metaphors can pale words, I have no words,
no...
You who are beyond compare - haven't I seen you everywhere before?
Just kidding - no, not really
Talk to me, you who never tell me anything
Let's talk... OK, I'll go, like, first
So... what's up?

Keep Change In Your Pockets
Danny Maseng (c) 2000

So listen, so listen - keep change in your pockets at all times!
Keep change for the beggar, the bus, for the train
Keep a spot, keep a room, keep a window wide open
Keep a cool change of clothes for the moment of moments!
Keep the fire in your soul
Keep remembering
Keep reminding yourself - Keep a stone for the journey
Keep the face you've been longing for etched in your heart
Keep the gleam in your eyes
Keep the pillar of fire to guide you by night
Keep the pillar of vapor to cool you by day
Keep on looking for signs, for a path, for an opening
Keep your hopes, keep collecting your dreams
Keep the palms of your hands outstretched like a beggar
Keep the sound of the whispered small daughter of voice
Keep the glow of her face
Keep on following towards
Keep the passion unbroken
Keep the yearning unending
Keep it deep in your bones
Bear the pain, be a fool
Keep believing
Keep on marching ahead to that place where you learn what simplicity
is
What commitment is for
Why the eyes were created
Why the soul is transparent
Why there's no greater gift
In this wondrous world
Than to suffer a heart filled with love for no reason

Why there's nothing as lonely
Why there's no greater journey
There is no greater joy
Keep some change in your pocket
Some change for that moment
Just enough for that moment of moments
When we're all in the moment
When we're finally all in the place at the time in the grace
Face to face with the one
And you wouldn't be wanting to find yourself
Stuck, by the side of the road with no change
With your pockets embarrassed and empty
And your heart so hollow so close to the end
Having traveled so far
So listen -
Keep change in your pockets at all times!

I Must Have Been
Danny Maseng (c) 1999

Somewhere down the line
I must have been an orphan
Whirling on a plain at night
In Anatolia, bathed in light
Waiting for the all-merciful
To pour stars into my naked shell
Please remember...

For The Gift Wrapper On High
Danny Maseng (c) 2000

I woke up one morning and found myself wrapped in light
From head to toe like a cocoon;
And a voice inside me whispered: Go, go
So I walked out into the new city and everywhere I went people said:
Good morning, Abraham
And I said: Good morning, people. Who's Abraham?
But no one answered so I kept walking, trailing light behind me
Like a snail on a rock
Like an Abraham
Very light I felt very young I felt very open
Which is unusual for me, it isn't for some people, I know,
But, for me, for me this was a revelation
For me this was the kiss of freedom
To be walking through the world like that, tethered on threads of light
like that,
Dangling from the pale morning moon like that
Like some upside down candle
Casting light-echoes on the pavement
On my way to wherever it was it didn't matter did it
It made no difference any more
And I just said: I don't know what to say
I have no fitting words
But I will one day, I will... I hope
Because I wish to thank you, Oh Gift-Wrapper on high, oh Giver of Names
For waking me up this morning new
For breathing light into my soul
For binding me in your embrace
For sending me tied up in light ropes
Free Into the world
Where anything can happen now
Anything..

Light The Fire
Danny Maseng (c) 2000

Four are the palaces built by the king:
A palace of light / A palace of wisdom
A palace of angels / And a palace of clay
With a fountain / A Garden / An upside down
tree
If heaven is here - where is earth, what are
we?
Two Candles / Two hands
Two souls in the image of
One - the glory that flows into all
One is the beauty that flows from your eyes
Light them now
Let them burn
Light the fire

What Would You Do?
Danny Maseng (c) 1999

If the fate of the world was in your hands,
At your feet at this moment -
What would you do?
What would you do at this moment
If the root of all souls was at your grasp,
In your soul at this moment -
What would you do?
If the love of all loves,
To end all love, to heal all wounds,
Was in your heart at this moment -
What would you do?
If the vision of all that is good was in your eyes
So simple, so clear,
So apparent to you, at this very moment -
What would you do?
Would you know? Would you recognize where you have come from,
Where we are going to?
What is the task we've been handed?
When was it given?
How do we dance when the music is only implied,
When the guests are embedded in layers of rock,
When the wedding is thousands of years in the past,
But the bride is before us right now, at this moment?
She's the height of four worlds,
She's beyond any vision, enwrapped in her cobwebs white as our memory
Dark and ecstatic,
Beauty no veil can conceal, no matter how holy.
Here is the bride
And here is the world
And here the beginning
And here is the end of all ends;
And the gate,
And the eyes
And the fear
And the yearning
And all that is broken is gathered in heaps at the hem of her gown
And all that's been torn can be mended
And must be, and must
And all that is hurt can be soothed
And must be
If only we rise
If we rise
If we rise