Frozen Lake

from The Mother Poems by Shambhavi Sarasvati at Kindred 108. We're all kindred here.

We can’t travel anywhere
while hiding.
We can’t arrive home
with carefully managed steps.

If we shutter our eyes, 
we see patterns only of 
our own making.

The great secret of the Self
is how generously life appears.

The great appearing of the Self
makes bodies shiver with becoming’s
song.

The great pleasure of the Self is
I AM

Reality’s lake births
ungovernable forms and
styles of moving.

Desperate for the 
cover of winter, 
some of us try to freeze 
that wild generation.

But failure and time
arrive without permission.
The sun gifts early light
to the frozen surface of the lake.

Ice cracks and moves. 
From winter’s cold,
spring does come.

God’s mercy is this:
not even the most determined among us 
can command Her 
unbound joy.

from The Mother Poems by Shambhavi Sarasvati