God's Places

Painting by Stelios


God's Places

Does the soul care about the mightiness
of this love? The soul is a place
and love must find its way there.
A fisherman on his boat
swung a string of fish
around his head and threw it
across the water where it landed
at my feet. That was a place.
One day I walked into a village
that was all ruins.
It was noon. Nobody was there,
the roofs were gone, the silence
was heavy. A man came out.
Gradually other people,
but no one spoke. Then somebody
gave me a glass a water
with a lump of jam
and a spoon in it.
It was a place, one of God's
places, but love was not with me.
I breathed the way grape vines
live and give in to the whole dream
of being and not being.
The soul must be experienced
to be achieved. If you love me
as much as you say you love me,
stay. Let us make a place
of that ripeness
the soul speaks about.

Linda Gregg