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Last week I posted 2 poems by a writer named Patrice Mason and invited any and all practitioner poets to submit their work to our blog at tricycle@tricycle.com.  This week I am very happy to be share these two pieces by songwriter Dan D’Agostino. The Way of the Wrathful Deities An expert eye for the dark arising For the dancing, whirling, wrathful gods For the cruel streak in the human species For the rot behind the bright façade Will have you marked a sour insurgent The sunlit realm you have betrayed But the wrathful gods are always calling “Approach us now, be not afraid” You do and with their claws they scourge you You’re pinned upon their cross of wrath Then a lonely, bitter resurrection This is the temple, this is the path Wide awake you’re a different person You’re solid now, your heart is full To the light of loss your eyes have opened You can’t dismiss compassion’s pull And the field of all is the fuel of wonder And the field of all is also you The wrathful gods brought you to this “We do just what we have to do Our bloody sword is grace unending Mercy fills our poisoned cup It’s fear of death that keeps you captive Wake up! Wake up! Wake up!” This next one is from a series of sonnets on the Bhavacakra called “The Suffering of the Different Realms”: The Human Realm A scream at first: it’s no easy birth. In baby’s combustible world senses roar. Denote, disperse the overflowing earth With I love this one, that one I deplore. As blade of flint I is born from this; As Leader loud and paranoid becomes Dispatching shadow threats into the abyss And quite moments beating down with drums. Then stare down the dragon: it runs and hides. No hero arrives for no treasure to win; No wisdom to hold, everything glides, Everything flows without and within. The universe first an explosion of power; The force of the blast unfolding a flower. Copyright Dan D’Agostino, Toronto, Canada 2010

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