Simon Ortiz – Nov 5, Iyengar III

In Sutra I.36, Patanjali offers “contemplating a luminous, sorrowless, effulgent light” as a means to creating inner stability; a quiet mind. Ortiz describes the same idea in this beautiful piece.

LiGHtT

Out to mail a letter at the corner mailbox,

morning moment, the sunlight caught

me striding loosely uphill. I cannot mistake

this morning for what it is: sunshine, air

quick and rich in spirit, alert in my eye.

It is here; I'm crystallized for a moment,

light gleaming at a hill bottom. But it's only

Broderick and Haight, a California city.

It's the power of the solar cosmos holding

me upon the rent tortured covering of self,

making me a patchwork; this is my redemption

after all this morning; this is what will fly me

with the posted mail more than words, more

than language, a swift incision that opens me.

Light, light, the sun's force sears me cleanly

with the joy of the hilly park above me. I

cannot deny light's eager touch, opening petals

of my flowering heart, the sparkling cells

sharing the simple and deeply joyous laughter

of my voice which opens like a child's. Ho!

Light of this morning, I am alive, alive with you.