the diamond

March 2, 2010

consider the diamond:

the tender darkness of a fleshy soul
deep within the heart of the earth,
secure & content in the silence
of its own endless night

until the whole weight of the world
bears down,

squeezing the black deposits out
forcing flesh into stone,
fluid into crystal,

hardening a molten heart
into the sacred geometry
of squares & angles.

& as if millennium
of that solidifying grief
isn’t enough to shatter
a rock back into a rainbow,

the thing
gets rudely unearthed

to the derision
of being called ‘rough.’

yeah, rough.

& then
the real sacrifice begins.

Jesus wanting to return the cup
knew everything there is to know
about diamonds, about

what must it feel like

to have your limbs
sawed off one by one

your head shaved
your edges sliced
your heart carved up
piece by piece

your familiar form
chiseled away

until fragments of your self
are strewn
all over some workman’s table,

dust settling  back to iridescent dust.

how is it
(terrible sweet wisdom)
to endure like that,

burning
with all the leaping blue-gold flame
of those eons forged in the earth’s furnaces

sparkling
with the solid light
of a million trapped & unwashed tears

polished
ruthlessly on all sides
by a true master whose gemstone eyes

mirror
a clear & unspeakable compassion
for the sufferings
of each little pebble on the beach…

& what does it take, really,
to emerge at long last, flawless
in the eyes of your maker,

ready to inspire the world:

for inside every black stone
lies the same suffering,
the same journey,

the same precious light diamond liquid fire

waiting
to come out of hiding

&
shine like the sun.