Mandala

surrounding the perimeter lies the infinite corona of the void

          closer in lies a region of pure faith congealed from distilled facts

nearer is an area of fuzzy understanding and conjecture based on education

          moving inward there are those places I have been to in my short life

closer still are all the people that I have ever met in my small travels

          next to me are my friends and wife and family, alive as well as dead

inside my waking mind is the ability to reason about the within and without

          writing helps to dislodge the many thoughts that bind me so tightly

the sounds of my emotions emerge in the music that I make

          from the unconscious emerges the contemplation of the universals

the void is whence my memories emerge and my experiences will end

          my faith wells unbidden and is correct without a proof

scattered facts and structured learning seethe in and out of thought

          sometimes I see similarities in different mountain ranges

people I have met return to finish things in dreams

          the ones who nurtured me always remain at my shoulder

I strive at once to grasp the science and to understand my imagination

          I write to bear witness to all this foolishness mixing with free beauty

I play a music which is a pipeline to my innermost state of mind

          I feel the power of images stirred by natural patterns in the stones

I peer at the void but often find only fear that there is no uncertainty

          Faith bubbles up like water in the current of a river clean and deep

The beauty of the calculus bespeaks a worthwhile striving

          The place that I am staying might remind me of another from long ago

All those that I have met may be the same cards dealt from different decks

          The great aunts and the newborns get mixed up inside me over time

My mind never takes any holidays but rests quite well at night

          Fingers to the keyboard, I summon grammar, syntax and vocabulary

Music is, for me, much more freeform and lacks any pretense

          Waking from a dream, a much deeper channel briefly opens to me

Death waits to re-merge me with a much larger process

          I believe in things that come to me where reason is not a tool

Observations of the known universe must be woven into patterns

          Travel broadens me through the stripping of mindless daily routines

Often when I speak it is with the voice of one who has gone away

          Sometimes when I feel, it is because of what they gave me

Day by day I pack more facts and figures almost safely somewhere within

          Writing organizes the beauty, shame and wonder that I know

Music emerges from and connects with a different and wordless level

          The things I thought I almost saw come from somewhere we all share