Morning Deer

Morning deer visited my hillside
Silent supervisors needing to check
Yesterday’s vision - this morning’s result
We were held last night by a land
That dreamed us both
Them with Me, together
They move through every day
I first sensed the land yesterday

Although, I made no change
To the landscape
As a gift with deer in mind
I am always aware
We work together - the deer and me
I plant once - they prune every day
Just as something born in me
Is tended and changed, every day

Let the beauty of this place
Live in every welcome space
Let each plant and every creature
Express itself with comfort
And know the joy of its home
As I long to feel its beauty
Settle into my bones
And become my vision

The deer never noticed me
As I gazed before my morning plan
She moved unhurried up the hill
Then sank seamless into the forest
The white patch behind her
Slipping through stillness
Where silent leaves and branches
Keep all the places I love

Spring Rain

Water often finds its lake
Under a raindrop dimpled surface
Its texture evenly spread
Under a light colorless sky

Drips from alder leaves
Bubble under branches
And sail within the breeze
Past the safety of their trees

Broken by raindrops
Weightless and transparent
All the drops and bubbles
Join the lake untraced

Cool, wet, fresh rain falls
That never laid flying dust down
or ever deepened a faded color
Rain that never played with light

Drips and drops that feed the lake
First strive to float the birds
Then stand firm to help the fish
And patiently wait to nourish the land

The red maple unfolding
Beside the heavy lake
Rests bent but happy
Inside the falling rain

The storm only missed the sun
But it left a string of magic
As a gift on every level branch
Delicate, unique and perfect

Each drop vibrating in play
With any light that finds it
My senses know each drop
Is precious as a pearl

A raindrop's beauty can't be kept
So these gems will never sparkle
Around a soft and gentle neck
Spring rain on maple in the morning sun

A Gentle Breeze

How
Can
The wind
Send
Love or Healing
Through a raindrop
To its lake
Or a teardrop
To its heart
When it
Only seems to touch
The surface

Byssus

I am fully, deeply, entirely
Unknown to you now
Even you must know
The threads that stretched
Between us
Are broken and hang loose
Too short to be reconnected
Too meaningless to be useful
They will fall away now
Finding their place among
Seabed creatures and those
Too deep to see or feel
The light from above
Filtered, attenuated
By the density of this world
How we float without the strands
Love is not a line but a color
And the air we have found
Is real

Being Human

Being human
For a long time
Can forge strong bonds
To an image of self

One piece taken
From the whole pie
Is separate but still at one with nature
And is always at one with a higher truth

Taught by others
To find a flaw
In God’s nature
The one we carried
Like a stone cold cherry pit
Inside our own secret wedge of the pie
Hidden by a single shade of learned life

Let go of your secret
Cast off your learning
Embrace the evening’s truth
Our universe lives fully in every single piece
As perfect and as whole as we need it to be
Ten thousand colors wait
To mend us whole

Morning Geese

Distant geese clamor
Chasing calls across the sky
Following the truth
That rattled through them
Excitement in their call
Draws me from a sleep
Fresh from my dream
Into their dream
Waking up to spring

Sunshine

Sunshine dries the rain we make
To darken rocks we walk around
And nourish parched friendships
Rain's silence brings out the brightness
And detail in each new moment
Full emotions color this or that
As sunshine soars high above pain
And with Love finds free entry
Through time’s window or cold rain
To still our special body hearts
With warm gladness never remembered
But found and spent completely
In the freshness of each moment

Late Winter Weather

Winter breathed a breath today
Insisting on its cold wet way
But flowers already found the trees
That waited for them all winter long

Winter just opened an eye a bit
And stirred from sleep
The world feeling guilty
Or maybe a just a little frightened
Hid itself behind a cold wet drape
In spite of spring flowers
That have already broken through ground
And split bark on bare branches of trees

Please wish that winter falls
Back into the sleep it roused from
Or folds its stern temper neatly
And leaves the bright table
That’s set for the party
We all wait for

We walked in winter’s shadow
For so long - we need it to leave
But winter only knows its own darkness
It can’t feel a shadow
So spring, summer and fall
Are only paintings on the wall
They cast no shadow for winter to see

May winter drift softly back to sleep
Snoring quietly forgotten sounds
Until we miss crisp darkness
After twilight fades warm seasons

I just looked outside and it is snowing
It is not sticking but snow is certain
Among the rain drops
It is late in the year for that
And spring's decorations now lay ruined

Blueberries

Late summer
Blueberries
Lie on the ground
Staring up blankly
At branches
And crowns

Flowers
That leaped
At them
Early in spring
Have all passed
Them by
Without
Saying a thing

Far up above
Tall and unblinking
The flowers
Find love
With the breeze
And its inklings

There is only
The pheasants
Those left
In the field
That are willing
To harvest
A Blueberry
Meal

- So up they go -

Over the soil
And under the sky
Far beyond fences
 And bushels of rye
where they'll make
Their own homes
And they'll live
Or they'll die

Dreams

Dreams are clouds on quiet water
Changing shape and size
Drifting through sleepless minds
Floating weightless - upside-down
Along an important edge of the river
Obscuring all that lives
Below their dark softness
Obscuring all that lives
Above their white hardness
The river doesn’t understand dreams
And flows unaware of the weightless captain
That rides its back and holds our ear
On every day that the sun comes out
And the wind brings its clouds
Over an endless horizon

Spring Flowers

Spring warms words
That rise like daffodils
Out of soil
And stand
Above ground
Rooted firm in feeling

Words that bring color
To winter landscapes
Lost in blue
While warm sun stirs soil
Near feelings
Dormant but seeded
Shallow within us

Spring’s bright colors
Drawn from the earth
Celebrate life’s animal
The one we try
To deny

Still, life finds its way
Easily - like water
Beyond the banks of a river
To drink deeply
And feed the bright flame
That lives
Down below darkness
Deep in our body

Wood Duck

A brightly colored wood duck
Carries perfect colors upstream
Self-conscious and all alone
Forgetting that moment of longing
Of wishing to be noticed
Of needing to be heard
Swims now exposed
To hunters and mates and life
Wearing his fragile cloak
Over the rich warmth
Of a slender but growing soul