Lesley S. King

Please enjoy this guest post by my friend Michael Hock. A Very Brief Guide for Travelers Out on an adventure, you ask for directions. Who do you ask, who believe? You’ve got the goal identified— maybe a hidden slot canyon, cut out from flat rock, secret, unknown, and no map, no signs. Of course, it […]

When I’m Here firm ground under my feet scent of piñon smoke in the winter air I transcend space.   When I’m in the Now heart beating in my chest sun warm against my cheeks I transcend time.   When I’m with the Beloved His image radiant in my eye a smile sweet on my lips no […]

The birds’ favorite songs You do not hear,   For their most flamboyant music takes place when their wings are stretched above the trees   And they are smoking the opium of pure freedom.   It is healthy for the prisoner to have faith   That one day he will again move about wherever he […]

Half moon dances with pink cloud just as I dance with You. So ephemeral these bodies whether of stardust or mist. We waltz and twirl beyond them into the realm of eternal bliss.

Please enjoy this poem by the 14th-century mystic, Hafiz. And For No Reason And for no reason I start skipping like a child.   And for no reason I turn into a leaf that is carried so high I kiss the Sun’s mouth and dissolve.   And for no reason a thousand birds choose my […]

The trail I have trekked for countless lifetimes has washed away. The monsoon rain flooded and gushed through my inner canyon, dislodged heavy logs and gnarly brush obliterated all cairns all my carefully carved ways. Now I tread the streambed with You, hop from sandbar to sandbar climb over flotsam of my past as You […]

On a cloudy autumn day I pedal my bike along a ridge to a hilltop strewn with piñon trees, distant mountains visible in every direction. Elation brims over within me. I turn my bike downhill on a crazy-fun romp. I bank turns, skirt around trees and grind though gravel patches. A broad smile stretches across […]

Not this mushroom. Not that mushroom. Not this. We come upon a spring mossy, trickling, draped violet blossoms and a clear pool. Nothing matters but this transcendent Beauty. Suddenly the desired mushroom— the Boletus— appears.

My dear, this world, its laws, our perceptions, are such a minute part of existence.—Hafiz I see that life is a game. I didn’t know this so I would take life seriously, think that I couldn’t handle it, and thus I would fling myself onto the altars of the lower chakras. I would seek sex and […]

I always wanted someone to steal me away on a grand sailboat to a tropical isle, with palms and a turquoise bay, or in a plane over lofty peaks to wildflower meadows where butterflies play.   I longed to leave my desert the pain of this anvil heart the boredom of my heavy-metal playlist, find […]