My Kali

Kali is

Mother

Father

Creator

Life-Giver
Death-Bringer

But Kali,

My Kali,

Is She Who Understands.

The Devi Mahatmya Retold
1.
In Truth, there are no demons
Save those we create of ourselves

We turn our backs, willingly and

willfully,
On the Divine

We spit on our Purpose

And exist in the one truly unnatural
state:
Lovelessness
We turn a callous eye on poverty

In all its devious and manifold forms

The poverty circumstance inflicts, the
poverty of Spirit

Which is far, far worse

When we withdraw a hand held out in
Compassion,
Our souls become victim
And demons are made manifest

We asuras are empty vessels

The void where there is no Truth to
be found.

2.
However,
There is a seed to be gleaned

Even in that void

And Her name is Hope

For Hope is an ever renewable

resource
She thrives even in the most hostile of
climates

Though we may have nothing else,

Hope, riding on Her grand and
fearsome tiger,

Is always with us;

She is the smile in the face of
adversity

Many are the beads of Her necklace

And these She gifts to those that
know Her

Durga!
Durga!

We recognize you, Great Mother!

You burn at the center of every Sun!
Cast upon us the light of your Third
Eye!
We await our Liberation!

3.
In the heart of the soldier
Thousands of miles from the home he
knows he might never see again,
There is Hope

In the heart of the mother

Weak from the loss of a miscarried
child,
There is Hope

In the heart of the cow

Missing the pasture she never knew
and led now to slaughter,
There is Hope

Wherever there are flies in the eyes of

a starving baby,
Wherever there is an unwanted pet
tossed into oncoming traffic,
Wherever there flows a river of bitter
tears,

There is Hope
Hope
Is the one thing that cannot ever be
taken from us.

4.
As men become demons
With our deceptions and insatiable
needs,
Every missile becomes the phallus

Erect and throbbing for release

And people become merely targets
With their turbans and their veils

We distrust and hate the “other”

Though our blood runs through their
veins
Words like “collateral damage”

Mean nothing
We see the the child dead
Her head crushed by falling debris

But she is only an image

Grimly fleeting
On our TV’s; we change the channel

That single dead girl

Mightve been a Dr. King or a Gandhi
Or indeed, the Messiah
Our demon nature
Keeps us blind
We are buffalo-horned Mahishasura.

5.
Now don’t misconstrue,
The male is not inherently evil

In Ultimate Reality,
Evil is a human invention
It is not found in the womb of our
creation
It is not real

What we view as “evil”

Stems from imbalance

The Sacred Union of male and female

Has nothing to do with gender

Or earthly relationships;
The Union is between two polarities
When carefully cultivated
The dance of God and Goddess

Produces the child known as Peace

We are that child

We await the time of wakefulness

When Durga takes us to Her breast

When She breathes into us our life

When She breathes into us our death

She alone
Teaches the ways of the warrior.

6.
The Mahishasura
We have deluded ourselves into
becoming

Is a lie
The Prince of Lies
His saliva is venom
His words can make him President

Or King;
These are only hollow titles

Wherever Durga is made welcome,

Through acts of charity

As in the embrace
Of those whose foulness sickens us

-For Durga has multiple guises

and She is sometimes the unwashed
vagrant-

We are made virgin again

And Mahishasura is beheaded

See his hands

Still reaching for gold
See his mouth
Still alternating between “Buy!” and
“Sell!”

For the doors to Wall Street

Only open for those without soul.

7.
Yet-
There is something beyond even
Durga
Beyond the ancient
Beyond the primordial

She is the time before being

She is the time before time

Hush!
We cannot speak Her name!

Or can we?
Dare we cry to Her?
The devouring Terrible One!
She who abides in Darkness

Is in us, too
Within and without, the cosmic
breeze

Exalts Her name:

Kali, Kali

See Her eyes bulging as in the hanged

man-
See Her beautiful eyes in which to lose
ourselves-

And find ourselves

Over and over again

She wears us
Like a garland of grinning skulls.

8.
Now what, you ask,
Is Beauty?
I’ll begin by telling you what Beauty is
not:

Beauty is not sparkling white teeth

Beauty is not flowing blonde hair
Beauty is not the covetousness of
porcelain skin

No
These things can be regarded as
“beautiful”
But they have nothing to do with
Beauty

Beauty is in the wrinkle of concern

A mother has for the son lost to
drugs-
She is Beautiful

Beauty is in the people of Greenpeace

Standing between whale and
harpoon-
They are Beautiful
Beauty is in the first brush of cheek to
cheek
Shared by a man and the sick cat he’s
taking home
That’s when I became Beautiful.

9.
Demons, though false, replicate
Like the Hydra (like doubt)
One head is cut off
Two more replace it
Just as there will always be new
challenges
To face- Even by the most
“enlightened” soul
All must be met
Head-on with dignity and grace

And forebearance;
For you are ever the victor
So speaks many-petalled Parvati
Ensconced in the majesty of Mount
Himalaya

All-knowing,
Parvati sees the headless body of
Mahishasura
Give birth to two fears:
Sumbha and Nisumbha

Howling, blood vomiting babes

With no teat to feed from
Save pride
Parvati smiles on their ignorance.
10.
Sumbha and Nisumbha grow
Big and gather their toys
Money, guns, missiles, tanks-

“Only we can protect you”

Despicable opportunists
Disguised as men of the people

We believe them
When they talk of “weapons of mass
destruction”
Asking no questions, we receive only
lies

And these we swallow like sweetest

ambrosia
Power however, is insatiable
In the thieving hands of the hard;

They want to take everything

That is good
And make of it corruption

Parvati in Her lotus pose

Parvati, the beneficence of Durga,
Is to be the concubine of demons

Sumbha desires the rape and

conquest of Nature
Nisumbha desires a sky turned black
as coal
Their mantra: “Drill, baby. Drill.”
11.
Parvati is the Earth
A living, breathing entity

All that is, is of Her

She rose us up from the water’s depth

She gifted us with everything we

would ever need
-Genuinely need-

We would eat of Her body

We would drink of Her blood

Holy Communion in Truth

(We could hear Her then

But very few can hear Her now;

Even fewer are willing to listen)

Demon-possessed, we seek Her

destruction
Foolhardily, because there is no other
place for us to go
Tortured beyond comprehension,
The Third Eye of Parvati/Durga opens
fully…

In welcome of the Dark Goddess

The Ineffable, Incomprehensible

Slayer of the false, Restorer of the

balance
Kali, Kali
Like a song, like a call to arms
Kali, Kali.

12.
In darkness
And silence
At the very core of our being
Is the authentic Self

The answer to “who we are”

Waits
To be discovered
Like a soul mate, like an abandoned
lover

In darkness
She is Kali
Ego-less, nestled in amniotic fluid
Windowless as a battleground

Fallen into disuse

Where flowers grow unrestricted
Love
Beyond “good” and “evil”

In darkness
Quiet as the crypt
Kali’s embrace
Without bias, endless.

13.
Although everything transpires in
sight of the Goddess

The ego-driven asuras believe their

actions above Her

Failing to honor the

interconnectedness of the All

Acting in a manner most offensive

In violation of Universal Law,

vertiginous and inevitable

All contrary actions to be contained,

consumed
In Kali’s expansive maw; She is Karma

Lapping up transgressors like a cat to

milk

None can escape Her tongue

She swallows

Sumbha and Nisumbha and all their

nefarious acolytes
Down Her hallowed throat

Punishment? Nay--- there they return

to darkness

To contemplate the error of their way

Until given another chance

Reborn to learn the lessons scorned

Our Mother is most compassionate

Aum, Aum, Aum

She gifts the sacred syllable to Her

progeny

In Kali, Ourselves.
Ahimsa

I sweep the path in front of me

So as to cause no harm to any on
my journey

I honor the Soul present

In each person, each animal,
everything that is

I eat only plants

As the Jains do because plants are
believed to suffer least

I appreciate adversity
For without it, I could not grow

I love the present moment

Because all we have is Now.
Samsara

Ever being born

Ever dying
Continuing cycles
And futile
We are the hamster at his wheel

Coming, going
We do our busywork
To what end?
 We must be rich in pocket
If not in spirit

Desire
Will keep us here

Orwellian wars
It’s easy to avert the eye
Those are not our children
Overseas, we do not know them
We only track American casualties
Karma
Will keep us here

But Love- Glorious Love!

Love for all above love of self
Shatters the ego
Frees us from samsara

Love is Liberation.
The Dance (For LaWanna)

Freedom
From constraint
From physicality
From the illusion of this place
Where our minds roam free
Free
To soar

To dance
Above the clouds
Above the thunderous roar
Of the angry masses
We have no need for cell phones here
No need for television or computers
Or wheelchairs
No impediments

Just The Dance

The great cosmic dance of creation
Our dance lights up the stars
Our joy paints the exteriors of
dazzling new worlds
Worlds of hope without number
Without end
We are blessed by Kama
To dance freely for always.

Mother’s Attributes

1. Her Body

The form of the Mother is naked

To show that She is Truth revealed
She has no need for vanity
No need to be considered a
“beauty”
For all things are of Her conception
All things are aspects of Her
brilliance
She is in the diamond
She is in the grain of sand
She is all that is deemed “good”
She is all that is considered “evil”
Because Mother is omnipresent,
She is in every thought
Every word, every deed
Every blessing, every atrocity
When properly understood, Kali
presents Herself as naked
Free of wordly delusion
Sky-clad, Her body is Ultimate Reality
The stuff of pure Spirit.

2. Her Tongue

They say Mother’s tongue

As a sign of respect for Shiva
While She dances Her world dance
Over His inert form
This is in error; Mother is above Shiva
She is Mother-Father,
Progenitor of Gods and humans
Her tongue lolls not in wifely
devotion
But in utter opposition to His order
She is wildness, She is chaos
Her dance stops for no one
It is constant, it is all-encompassing
It is suns gone super-nova
 It is the pollination of flowers
And the birthing cries of newborns
Whose rest has been interrupted
Kali is anarchy of Spirit
Her tongue lolls in defiance.

3. Her Belt

Mother’s belt is made up of human

arms—
Many fingered hands,
The hands are not those of thieves—
 For thieves often steal out of
necessity,
The hands are not those of unfaithful
wives—
For those often reach out in the
absence of love,
The hands belong to the greedy—
Those who keep food from the
starving and cherish wealth over
compassion.
Stars (For Cherie)

So often we are discouraged

Told that we don’t matter
Our talents are negligible
We will never be more than what we
are now.
When no one believes in you,
Know this:
It is the time
For you to believe in yourself
And proclaim to the Universe,
“I am somebody. I am a star!”
Don’t be surprised
When the Universe answers back,
“Why of course you are!”
And it is so.
Ashram

I come to you
From my place of striving
I, who glory in your dark recesses,
Approach you in my disgrace
Prostrated
Low on your consecrated ground
Ash under my fingernails
My face as black as Ganges silt
My heart awaits your lotus touch
My arms reach out in embrace

Of the Mother Who bore me

Whose breath is ever-sustaining
Bountiful and cold
Terrifying and warm
I make an offering
Of this lie
Known as “life”
For the only true life
Is to be found in you,
My one and forever love

I repeat your name

As the mantra
Of my soul’s plea
Allow me to be only through your
grace
Beloved Kali Maa.

Hymn To Kali (For Kim)

I believe we come from a place of Love

And to Her we inevitably return
To some it might be Heaven, to others
Nirvana
Some call Her God or Allah or Buddha
There are many paths, roads to travel
But only one destination that is Bliss
I will rest in the arms of my Mother
From Her, to Her, my Divine Light.

Mother, my Mother, I call to Thee

To She who is black and beautiful
Hideous and terrifying to the
uninitiated
She cannot be seen in Her truth by
the blind
Of heart who turn away from Her
image
And condemn Her as a devil—They do
not understand
And are destined to live life after life
It is the fate of fools and those
governed by illusion
They cannot see that this place of
hate is not real.

Greed and power lust have never

brought liberation
Money and “nice things” eventually
crumble to dust
There is nothing to be gained in wars
of domination
All are equal in the sight of our
Creator
She whose Third Eye remains open
knows all
And Her cleaver slices through every
veil
Removing the demons in our midst—
She who is Kali of the cremation
ground
From Her to Her, my Divine Light.
Meditations On Kali Ma

Mother Dipa Nitya of the sapphire

eyes
Releases the mind from the bondage
of the ego
Turns the wordly mortal’s head to
truth from its lies
Igniting the soul-fire that grants
perfect vision
A suttee of the spirit as She intended
Granter of boons, Source of all
wisdom,
Awaken me from the dream to live in
your light.

Mother Kapalini of the radiant face

I share your throne of four heads
Breathing in your essence of life
affirmation
I weave flowers into your coal hair
Whispering my devotion into your ear
Bestower of good fortune, Dispeller of
fear,
Your image holds the key to ending
death and rebirth.

Mother Kurukulla of the cremation

ground
Absorbs anger and converts it to
peace
I adore you in your garland of skulls
Representing those things that do me
no benefit:
Hatred, dominance, pride, envy, and
greed
These you crush beneath your dancing
feet
And there the blossoms of virtue
spring forth.
In Praise Of Kali

The nature
Of the many-armed Mother
Is mutable; blessing disguised as curse
She is life and love and laughter
She is strife and flood and slaughter
All must be endured and appreciated
Before She grants Her one perfect kiss:
Love Everlasting.
That is why I give praise to Kali.
Kali Redemptive
I am walking alone
Seeking, searching
Listening for the sound
Of the sacred
Tones
And breathing
(In breath)
Kali
(Out breath)
Ma
And breathing
(In breath)
I am safe in the arms of my Mother
(Out breath)
To Her I surrender
To Her I surrender
Surrender
The dance begins…
The swaying of many hands
The beckoning hand
The healing hand
One hand, life-affirming
One hand, death-affirming
The hand that holds the lotus
The hand that holds the sickle
One hand, redemptive
One hand, contemplative
All in a gesture of welcoming
All signaling a homecoming
In these hands, I belong
In these hands, I surrender
Surrender
We are locked mouth to mouth
And She breathes
(In breath)
Kali
(Out breath)
Ma
She takes from me my fears
Dispelling them in Her love.