You have been invited to a garden party of the heart
You have accepted the invitation to behold
The delicately wrought gloriousness, wildness, shyly,
Warily, but more than that, with love, unconditional
Love of every heart beat, heart beat, heart
Beat once turned in rage againsr self, so beaten by your own
Heart, at last cast out in pain and betrayal
Wounded now, you huddled outside and waited for some one
Of those few passing through to ask you in
No one would, though, nor could they even touch
What you began in your own garden without you there
To call out the names, the colors of your desires still
Growing bounteously in spite of banishment
So some left, some waited, bewildered, calling, and now, after
A too, too long absence, the invitation resonates
The garden is crying out COME YOU BACK! guest of honor into self
You peek in and discover that hatred has grown old and forgetful of its own
Reason for being, and in this new softness, like spring thaw
Into a dry stream bed, a swift murmur that there has always been room for you
Here, always a need and a promise so that even the wildest seedlings
Bloomed, perfumed hope into nostrils of despair and tried to stay
Beautiful for your return, for your return
This sweetness is all for you, wafting freely through the garden gate
Thrown open like a mouth in fragrant song, halleluia of the heart
This beating you hear is the beating of wings
Sprouted out of the power in your own center
You have been invited to a garden party of your own sweet heart,
Delivered and accepted in one long motion, towared that center
Burn the sage, the leaves of rose and wintergreen
Light the candles in the middle of the afternoon
Walk inside, reach out into this lush tangle of self-longing, breathe deeply
You have come home
© 2002 Claudia Schmidt - Pragmavision Publishing