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M I R A C L E S A child healed because a prayer has been said Or a sacrifice offered to a household god Or because a different doctor is consulted Is not a miracle. A child could die from these things. An apparition can result from an altered state of mind Caused by pain, hunger, fatigue, mortification The magic mushroom or peyote-mescaline. Not a miracle. Just hallucination Self-induced, deliberate escape. An auto-stigmatizing statue, or one that cries The Lady's tears of pain Can be a calculated attempt To deceive the faithful Or one's self. Honest piety applied to human endeavor Can produce things that pass our understanding. These are not miracles For they require a special talent Like the shaman in "The Cunning Man" Miracles involve perceptions of reality Different from the ordinary interpretation Of what makes life work. A miracle-worker is not A common person. They are well-schooled in their art-form They aren't regular whiz-kids. They dazzle with their insights We ordinary folk Who aren't in their league. Super tuned and extra-focused eyes and ears Interpreting reality differently Nerons and receptors arrythmically conversing Discovering why there is disorder and chaos Is the miracle For they have been there always Waiting to be discovered by human senses They elude the common mind The idler's tongue They are not invented They are the apogee of creation When understood in their fullness Miracles explain the mysteries Of the world in human terms To human beings. Easter Day 2000 04.23.00 W.A.H.