Satsang with Guruji
by James Hannon
Can’t you see that flight
is disloyalty to one’s higher self,
that fight is a lack of humility,
and fear the sad absence of faith?
You’ve always known
you’d have to walk on the water
to get to where you long to be.
What good was your thinking
before I called you out?
You were frightened and lonely
and already far from home.
Back to your family?
Was your family always good to you?
Were they good for you?
In that painful space between doubt and faith
relief comes only in letting go
of the shame and fear that hold you back.
With love there is no shame or fear.
Do the angelfish in your aquarium
question the source of their food?
What can they know of the world
so rich and full outside their tank?
Could they ever understand
why and how you provide for them?
You complain that I honor your wife.
I give this lesson freely and with love.
You are unsettled by my watches and cars.
This is your idolatry--you worship an image
planted in your mind when you were a child.
What I offer is freedom.
Why don’t you want to be free?
James Hannon is a psychotherapist in Massachusetts, where he accompanies adolescents and adults recovering from addictions, disappointments, and deceptions. His poems have appeared in Blue Lake Review, Blue River, Cold Mountain Review, and other journals, and in Gathered: Contemporary Quaker Poets. His second collection, To My Children at Christmas, will be published in 2022 by Kelsay Books.
