Sermon on the Mount

Sermon on the Mount

All day long, I ascended step by
     step, toward the mountain top
The path, flat and steep, rising and falling, smooth
     and jagged, moving carefully between life and death and rebirth.
I climbed for no other reason than
to empty myself into the only church that calls me by name. The place
where God lives
     in the pink verbena, troping toward the sun,
     the yellow evening primrose waiting for the moon,
     the decaying agave corpses, and the cottonwoods
     hollowed by fire.
The trees offered the sermon from the book of Job:
     The earth will teach you of God.
Mourning doves led the choir, in exhortation:
     do not move too
     swiftly or you shall miss the timeless secrets.
The wind and the reptiles and the sage juniper spoke their wisdom:
     Pause and hold. Do not pass. Wait, listen, be still.
     Stand in awe, bow in humility, 
     they counseled.
I ascended step by
     careful step, toward the mountain top.
Reverence met me there.
And like my dead child, and yours,
     the earth was my great teacher.

-April 29, 2012

If you are looking for the posts on the DSM5 controversy, see below:

A personal story of loss and depression 

Ethics and the DSM 5