<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="overflow-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;">Thank you, Ed, for this confession of a marginal mystic…..wow ( i love the title)……every line makes me stop to listen…….<div>its inspired me to write up my own “should” confessional! And so fortuitous that you didn’t miss the seventh circle of the third heaven!</div><div>This poem is a mind bender! I should read it one more time!<br id="lineBreakAtBeginningOfMessage"><div><br><blockquote type="cite"><div>On Feb 24, 2026, at 3:49 PM, Ed Balldinger via Thespiritexpress <thespiritexpress@lists.mcn.org> wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><div><div dir="ltr"><font size="4">As requested by one, some, a few, or nearly all of the above to be shared on the ever lively Spirit Express, this is a poem I read before our </font><span style="font-size:large">Recognition Sutras</span> <font size="4">study today. It's a poem from my 2009 book of poetry, <i>"From Cavity's Kitchen to the Bone Comber's Home"</i>... </font><div><font size="4"><br></font></div><div><div><span style="font-size:large"> </span></div><div><div><br></div><div><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><u><span style="font-size:20pt">Confessions of a Marginal
Mystic </span></u></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"> </p><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:14pt">I should have knelt in the
tower </span></div><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:14pt">of marginal love much longer
than I did. </span></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt"> </span></p><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:14pt">I should have danced until my
feet </span></div><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:14pt">were numb from moving in
step. </span></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt"> </span></p><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:14pt">I should have spun like a
junk monkey </span></div><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:14pt">on the marble floors of
decimation. </span></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt"> </span></p><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:14pt">I should have split each hair
into quarter shanks</span></div><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:14pt">to prove the accuracy of my own
axe.</span></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt"> </span></p><div style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:14pt">In
the grainy angularity of a circular </span></div><div style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:14pt">dissension,
I fell down – face forward –</span></div><div style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:14pt">out
of a temple and into a shell </span></div><div style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:14pt">where
over and under, I generally dwell.</span></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt"> </span></p><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:14pt">I should have drained the
desert dry of all </span></div><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:14pt">its liquid dew when once I
had the chance. </span></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt"> </span></p><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:14pt">I should have purified all my
altered states</span></div><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:14pt">on the altar of figurative
speech. </span></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt"> </span></p><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:14pt">I should have breached the
wall that </span></div><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:14pt">held me like a garden tilled
in deep grief soil.</span></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt"> </span></p><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:14pt">I should have broken out and
trickled down in </span></div><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:14pt">streams that flow less damned
than this one does. </span></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt"> </span></p><div style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:14pt">Of
the insolvent knave who’s prone to </span></div><div style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:14pt">steer,
there is no direction given here – </span></div><div style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:14pt">one
part Dervish; two parts lore; three </span></div><div style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:14pt">parts
left as we who came before.</span></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt"> </span></p><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:14pt">I could have slashed a razor
gash </span></div><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:14pt">into the granite rock of my own
spotless tomb. </span></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt"> </span></p><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:14pt">I could have chosen one less
cloak to wrap </span></div><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:14pt">myself within, spending all
my pent up heat,</span></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt"> </span></p><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:14pt">but I could not miss the
seventh circle of a </span></div><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:14pt">third heaven, when the mystic
within me heard </span></div><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:14pt"> the voice of God, </span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0in 0.5in; text-indent: 0.5in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:14pt">and I stopped – </span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0in 1in; text-indent: 0.5in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><i><span style="font-size:14pt">to listen for once</span></i><span style="font-size:14pt">… </span></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"> </p><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0in 0.5in; text-indent: 0.5in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><i><span style="font-family:"Monotype Corsiva"">Edgar
Z. Balldinger </span></i></div><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family:"Monotype Corsiva""> January 26, 2004</span></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif">
</p><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family:"Monotype Corsiva""> <i>©
Nublin’s Pub, 2004</i> </span></div><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family:"Monotype Corsiva""><br></span></div><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><br></div></div></div></div></div>
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