Open Lines

Open my heart to receive your love,
Lift me from below; raise me to above.

Open the door when I stand in the way,
Show me a path; guide me each day.

Open my eyes when I close them to light,
Bring back my vision; sharpen my sight.

Open my ears when I’m too proud to hear
Or listen, with patience, to a voice that is clear.

And open a channel if soul comes my way
For compassion and love; guide words that I say.

And when day is done and bright stars abound,
Open windows to dreams of the Light and the Sound.

D.K.Shaw

Label Maker

I found love today in the oddest place
The journey of soul wears many a face,
But who’d have thought I’d find it here
In a place overloaded with anger and fear?

But deep in the mist a tiny light smiled
With wisdom of ages and eyes of a child,
And it might have escaped in the blink of an eye
Had I not stopped to wonder or ask myself: Why?

The label I gave had conflicted my mind
Never once did I think all this love I would find;
Always labeling this, always labeling that,
All these lifetimes of labels tucked under my hat.

The pilot, the poet, physician and baker
In time I became a fine-tuned label maker,
And what did I find in a stumble of health?
The largest of labels I’d given myself!

But love finds a way through each crack in the wall
Pouring forth without judgment for one and for all;
Every soul reaching out in its own unique way,
The searchlights in darkness we meet every day.

The wheels of lifetimes they keep ever turning
And fields of fires they keep ever burning
With people, and places, and other such things,
And labels attached with invisible strings.

Each soul in our path with a lesson to tell
The reflection of something inside of ourselves,
But to let go a label we let a soul be
And love cuts the strings and we set ourselves free.

D.K.Shaw

My Final Walk

I have walked through water
I have walked through fire
I have known of lack
I have known of desire

I have learned to sing
I have learned to dance,
And when faced with fear
I have learned to prance

So much drama
It could make a box office hit;
So much trauma
It could make the strongest man quit

But I've walked my own path
And in this there is honor,
But the badges I wear
Have grown rusty while on here

What a journey I've had
No one can deny,
But now my dear friends
It is time for goodbye.

D.K.Shaw

Service Call

To serve we must
Adrift we flow
On waves of trust
To ports unknown

An empty cave
A hollow sound
Of what we gave
Came back around

A golden heart
Compelled to give
Fills hollow space
With joy to live

And answers come
In times of need
A bed of flowers
From love-sown seed

And heaven’s blessings
Rain to earth
A shower of healing
For those who serve.

D.K.Shaw

Words of Choice

A light when held can burn the hands
Or reach out to a fellow man,
Or dry the tears from eyes of grief,
And stop a masked or midnight thief.

A song when sung can ring with joy
Or sharply turn—a trick or ploy—
To block a path of love unseen,
Or rivers wide with hopes and dreams.

Each day a twist of give and take
To sink or swim, or bridge to make;
Our choice to build or lift or break,
Or rhymes from which through words escape.

D.K.Shaw