The Lovely, The Holy

By Catherine Masters

 

I am woman

I am feminine

I am divine.

 

I am life

I am sex

I am purity manifest.

 

I am your all-mother

Come,

Feel my loving-kindness

I am your sister

Come,

Feel the blood we share

I am your lover

Come,

Feel my heart beat against yours.

 

I am your partner

Come.

Feel me as shadow

And light

Forever joined in this

Nimble-footed

Dance.

I am that aching wonder.

 

I am the deep mystery

I am effulgent, effervescent, ethereal

I am the collapse

Of galaxies into dust

And

I am the pure white

Fire of dharma

Born from such

Chaos.

I am the blue sacral pulse

Of cosmic energy.

I am your wild darkness.

 

I am the imperfect balance

The subtle itch

The grey fog around

Your dreams.

 

I reveal to you the soft shadow

Of the unborn

And

The unknown radiance

Of the quiet

And forgotten.

 

I am all that you fear.

 

I am all that you love.

 

I am Tara

Consort to the

All-knowing breast

And thrust.

 

I am Kuan-Yin

The watcher of eyes

The guardian of hearts

The gentle.

 

I am prajna paramita

The all-embracing

Universe.

The holy.

 

I am not defiling

And cannot be defiled.

 

I am not a temptress

And cannot be tempted.

 

I am the yearning,

The climax,

The resolution.

I am the sublime birth

Of consciousness.

I am simple joy.

I am profound sorrow.

 

I am nothing special.

I am only arms and legs

Only ribs and heart

Only eyes of ocean

Only breath of courage

Only fruit of the dead.

I am excellent.

 

I am the sound of rain

Promising growth

And renewal

I am the tenderness of wind

Awakening

The mind

I am the warmth of sunlight

Caressing your face,

Your lips.

I am the unabashed tempest.

I am the mirror moon.

 

I am the blossom

Ripe and ready

To welcome the

Gentle rain

And steady fingers

Of sister bee.

I am the bee

Who lovingly strokes

The soft folds

Of the flower

And knows it

To be beauty.

 

I am all that you

Have ever been.

 

I am all that you

Will ever know.

 

I am the one with

A thousand faces.

 

I am your dream

I am your reality

I am your vow.

 

I am the divine

Feminine

Woman.

 

I love you.

 

Now, listen.

 

Catherine currently lives at Green Gulch Farm Zen Center in Muir Beach, California where she also works as a gardener. She spends her days meditating, tending to flowers, herbs, and fruit trees, bowing, walking in the perpetual mists, and listening to wise people.