Get Haunted

As the harvest is cleared
And the frost settles,
As the coals are banked
And the streams thicken
And slow;

As the clocks are turned back
And the dark creeps forward,
We feel ourselves to be
Briefly,
Miraculously alive.
We don masks,
Capes,
Wings --

We laugh and eat sugar,
And briefly gain the power
Of living
Over the unbeatable
Truth of Beyond.

Behind the scrim of childish screams
And the pointed hats
And the sparkling wands;
Beyond the luminescent fangs
And plastic scars

Is a great truth:

Spirits wait for you --

Wait with hollow eyes
And huge, beating hearts --

Wait for you to acknowledge,
To remember:

Remember that you once
Thanked God for them,
Sang songs to them,
Slammed doors,
Told lies,
Shed tears for them --

Lived with them.

All they ask,
On this night,
Is that you reach
From your precarious perch
Toward their waiting souls,
And so briefly, bravely
Complete the circuit
Of
Life.

--Mr. Gobley

Dusk

i will likely never know where it is i am gone to. Even when i am gone there, what will exist that still can be called "me"?

Each time the Sun sets, i am reminded of this: that the Sun is not gone, it merely is gone to those of us who enter the night. We rest assured of the Sun's return, and the night's, too; we have trained ourselves to not fear the sudden collapse of the solar system, not to panic about another mutiny in Heaven or dread an upending of the physical laws that made and sustain us.

Dusk is a moment of great wonder for me; a little sadness at the passage of time, a delight in the promise of rest. Even on the dreariest of days, the sky seems to expand -- if the sky had shoulders, they would relax at this moment -- and time seems to enter a thin envelope of eternity.

May your moments of rest and wonder expand at each dusk, and may your soul calmly dwell within that envelope of eternity from which you were born.

Your friend --

Mr. Gobley

Shhh...

Do you hear it?

It is thin and high,
Persistent and untroubled.

It comes from beyond,
Goes beyond,
Yet at all times
Runs through
You.

The bulldozers
And weed-whackers
And the
Grinding gears
Of our
Steel skeletons
Submerge
But do not
Subdue:

The thread
Between you
And the
Greater Self,
Despite all,
Still thrums
And vibrates
To the tune
Of your life;

Still courses through
The thin artery
Of timelessness
That nourishes
You.

This sound
Is underneath
Yet omnipresent,
Urgent
Yet patient.

It is
You.

Quiet.

Listen.

Ah, yes.

There
You
Are.

--Mr. Gobley

Simple

Focus in,
Pare down,
Aspire
To this:

One place to call home.

One unifying
Idea
By which
To question,
live,
learn.

One place
To which
You can retreat
For comfort
Aid
Inspiration
Rest.

One person
for whom
You would
Do anything.

And one peak
On which
To set your sights,

And by which to gauge
Your direction.

--Mr. Gobley

19

A prime number
has

a unique
relationship
to the number
One:

it is made
only of itself
and the
lonely integer
that stands for
One,
Oneness,
Unity.

A prime number
is odd --
which is to say,
not even --
and it is
possessed
of a solitary
quality

that sets it apart
even from its
closest neighbors.

Today,
i am a prime number,
made only of myself
and
All,

marching in
rank and file
with my
colleagues;

sequential,
collaborative
and yet
stubbornly
misanthropic;
obedient,
compliant
and yet

unalterably

alone.

--Mr. Gobley

Thought and Belief

Naught but a choir of neurons
Bids me sing of You;

Only a thin filament
Of electromagnetic
Salvation

That runs its riverbed
Can convey me
To the angels.

And every flash
That singes
The heavens
And inflames
My molten
Earth

Conducts itself
Along conduit
Made for that moment,
That purpose
Alone.

We are recombinant,
Combustible;
We perceive,
And in an instant
Are transformed.

What can we know,
Save that about which
We were born
To wonder?

And of what are we made,
Save that which
Makes us anew?

My blood
Bears Your signature,
My poor brain
Enfolds Your fingerprints:

In the blind brilliance
Of an instant
i see the filial embrace
Of piety and passion,

But in the light
Of my days
Plunge again
Into dull
Conjecture.

Small wonder:
i live in the world
We are making,
You and i;

Dark matter
Dances
With wave
And particle

To conduct
The electricity
Of enlightenment
Through the circuits
Of mere
Survival.

By simply
Being,
We eclipse
Being

And join You,
Our co-Creator,
In the crucible
Of eternal
Becoming.

--Mr. Gobley

Fitness Water

i want to be
your Fitness Water:

transparent
unremarkable
unexceptional

until tasted.

As i cool
your innards,
quench your
inner fire,

a little of me
remains
on your tongue:

sweet,
clear,
clean.

Leaving no trace
but a taste,
i am you
but something more:

water
that renews
replenishes
redeems:

we are fluid
we are one

i move into you
through you
beyond you --

perhaps
our molecules
will one day
meet again?

--Mr. Gobley