The Free Heart

Knowledge and power:
The words that would
supply us with lies
about what it means to be human
Telling us the things we should
reach out, to hold, to have

To succeed and to live
The good life
is to follow the logic of more
To do and to take
To give and to make
And in the good work
that is measured above
is found the good life
that is foreign to love

In all of the shadows
cast over the heart
disparaging feeling
and dreaming of freedom as
untethered choice

And yet the weak voice of
communion’s concealing
one freedom
consuming another:
two objects forever apart

This striving disguises
the silence that speaks
of alternate values,
of worth in the weak,
of dignity found
and revealed in the gift
that does not need to earn its existence

In quiet exchange
of vulnerable trust
a new form of freedom
replaces the lust
for knowledge and power
that keep us chained
in loneliness.

In uncertain, unassured
gestures of love
the boundaries are blurred
that keep us afraid,
apart from each other

For here the free heart
stretches out of itself,
to give and receive
of invaluable wealth.
With freedom to be
can love confirm love
and trust foster trust

Yes, the free heart can free
the fullness of self
that was not before seen