SURRENDER

  
"Motion and Emotion"

Tickle you I do 'til you forgive the gravity
of your life as you believe it just as
night forgives the heat of day and daylight
forgives nightfall's crush of definition.

There is no rapture without surrender, no
surrender without forgiveness, no forgiveness
without tension's deep release from the
well of time changes chances sought to
soften in forgetfulness.

Remember how daylight surrenders the
sky to stars and moon, how stars and moon
will fade and dawn circle around again.
Sleep gives up dreams for three dimensions
and the concrete world dissolves in visions
of grief and grandeur dreamt in the liquid eye
of the sleeper held in the arms of darkness
'til stars fade and dawn circles round and round
again

Without release the heart will harden.
Without the heart's consent we can never
stop trying. Without ceasing to strive
no mystery will have us.

We are each a letter in divinity's name.
We are each a voice in a universal chorus.
We are each a spark in the holiest explosion.
Without ceasing to strive we can never know
what no one can tell us nor can we shatter
the frame of mind and feel the fire we are.

Without release, without surrender
without forgiving all belief, we marry our history
and no mystery will have us.

-- Franklin Abbott

Surrender to God means you come over to the winning side.

--Anne Lamott