Poetry: Blessed Boddhisattva

[Apsara]

Blessed Boddhisattva

O Boddhisattva help us learn
Relinquish nirvana for another turn
Upon this great wheel
O Boddhisattva return
For our learning please reveal

by the way you argue with us
how we can free ourselves of righteousness

by the way you hurt us
how we can learn forgiveness

by the way you endure great suffering
how we can bear our own more easily

by exemplifying separateness
how we can measure our own wholeness

But most of all,
please come
as a friend
as a lover
an agitator
a next door neighbor
a grocery store clerk
so that I can become acquainted
with all of your paths to compassion.

Forgive me Boddhisattva,
for my irreverence
but when I have searched for you
when I have looked upon this world
for one who has forgone nirvana
one that has agreed to be tied to this ground
and that willingly struggles alongside of me
and reaches out and up
under this gravity...
when I look for you,
I am certain, that I see you everywhere
and that in fact
you are every single one of us.

So, pray for the Boddhisattvas
pray for us
and welcome us into our hearts,
Boddhisattvas all, all one.