Ganesh
Beloved Ganesh, elephant-headed Lord
of Letters, you who penned Vyasa’s epic,
the Mahabharata, I call on you—
if I may be so bold: be my scribe.
Coil your eloquent trunk around the moon
and hold it overhead to light our work.
Dip your single, most auspicious tusk
into your deepest, darkest pot of ink.
Light candles, burn incense, sweep away the dust.
Trumpet Om. Write my words on all
the rivers, lakes, and oceans of the world.
Scatter them to the winds, the fields, the stars.
Whatever spirals back, intact, inscribe
it on the heart and mind of humankind.
John W. Steele is a psychologist, yoga teacher and graduate of the MFA Poetry Program at Western Colorado University, where he studied with Julie Kane, Ernest Hilbert and David Rothman. His poetry has appeared in Amethyst Review, Boulder Weekly, Blue Unicorn, The Lyric, Society of Classical Poets and Verse-Virtual. One of his poems was nominated for a 2017 Pushcart prize, another won The Lyric’s 2017 Fall Quarterly Award.
