And we know, when Moses was told
in the way that he was told,
"Take off your shoes," he grew pale from that simple
reminder of fire in the dusty earth.
He never recovered
his complicated way of loving again
and was free to love in the same way
the fire licking at his heels loved him.
As if the lion earth could roar
and take him in one movement.
Every step he took
from there was carefully placed.
Everything he said mattered as if he knew
the constant witness of the ground
and remembered his own face in the dust
the moment before revelation.
Since then thousands have felt
the same immobile tongue with which he tried to speak.
Like the moment you too saw, for the first time,
your own house turned to ashes.
Everything consumed so the road could open again.
Your entire presence in your eyes
and the world turning slowly
into a single branch of flame.
David Whyte
Photo: Peter Bowers