Suddenly,
at the mouth of the labyrinth
in the very breath of its spirit
there we are a dynamic duo
confronted with the dross of our selves
our own selves up against
the design we help create
but never fully comprehend
the way little children
absorb the environment around them
the way we all stake out territory
no matter how shy our tact
we go in as corporeal slaves
and transform into a limit of angels
all dancing around and then around
                                                            again
on the center head of a pin.

 

James Van Looy has been a fixture in Boston’s poetry venues since the 1970s. He is a member of Cosmic Spelunker Theater and has run poetry workshops for Boston area homeless people at Pine Street Inn and St. Francis House since 1992. Van Looy leads the Labyrinth Creative Movement Workshop, which his Labyrinth titled poems are based on. His work appears weekly in Oddball Magazine.