Listening to the Land

Fireworks

2012-02-23T09:38:00.000-08:00

Google Images
I walked today a little way
Along the river and over the hill
Beside my dog through morning fog
We lost his ball sometime last fall
But never mind it has been some time
Since the two of us even walked at all

Life seemed good from where I stood
But that’s all changed since I was named
The one in charge of the fireworks barge
My days seem wrong while nights are long
And if lights burn bright the wires look right
But we will never know until the show

If the rain will come it may soak the gun
That sets a blaze to the fireworks craze
And now I rent and my money is spent
On room and board of my own accord
But now I go to start the show
With a light in hand to match demand

They all sit back as I climb the rack
And flip the switch till the sky is lit
The people oooh and the people aaah
Explosions rip and they point their mits
The winter’s cold and the winter’s dark
But I lit it up with a single spark

Borrowed

2012-02-20T18:20:00.001-08:00

Google image
We borrow from earth
For the bodies we make
To follow our dreams
Before they escape

Flowers it seems
Can laugh at our corpse
But they’re made from land
By dreams of course

Flowers and Dreams
Both watered in thirst
Laughter and seeds
Who cares what came first

We got what we need
So everyone’s pleased
Feeding our bodies
Sweet fruit from tall trees

Truths

2012-02-14T10:56:00.000-08:00

Haida Gwaii, 2001
You followed a winding path beside me
And came across my heart and felt my love
You had no trouble being that close to me
I felt many hearts in those moments too
When love left safe places and knew what to do
Its rich generous gifts would set us all free
So light from our souls could penetrate seas
Shining deep beneath leaves left behind tea
In breathing each season's vulnerability
Change never fears to reflect autumn trees
But invites us to bathe in a world's salted sea
To find any truths for ourselves there may be

Sleep

2012-02-13T16:24:00.000-08:00

I had a really good sleep
Doesn’t mean a damn thing
When up against the truth
Truth that never lies to us
Truth that can surprise us

Sometimes
I had a really good sleep
Only means I didn’t get lost
Wandering far below my self
Where life floats in darkness
And seeks only rich, fullness
That dwells near the center
Of our deepest longings

Finding true comfort within
A landscape where we dream
Lets a world smile through us
Gentle, fast, unthinking, wise
Measured by courageous love

The Ocean

2012-02-13T10:41:00.000-08:00

Google Image
The ocean lives in its own place
Even in moments we are away
Its waves seek every rough edge
Casting itself wet against them all
Never waiting or looking outside
It rakes bold against its beaches
Always completing its tidal work
Under our feet beneath its waves
Forming beauty in ridges of sand
The power of ocean’s harmony
Bold between the tides remains
Sculpted complete with certainty
Just as we, vibrating in the world
Leave our own footprint of beauty

Found

2012-02-08T18:26:00.000-08:00

Vancouver Island lake
Lost beside a moment
The dog shook water off
Wet and still dripping
In a place we walked
So many times before
But it seems so different
Maybe it is the snow
Or the shrouding mist
Hiding forgotten silences
That broken twigs own
Every time we move
It invites us to stay awhile
But I am looking and listen
For anything familiar
Outside of this forest
Where I walk alone
Together with my dog
He never fears getting lost
This place is too small for that
And his rules are the same
All the way from here to there
But I know better than that
Things are always changing
And I am always drawn away
From the true course I follow

Mist

2012-02-06T19:18:00.000-08:00

Google Image
Mist can open a window
In search of distant worlds
For truth beyond this place
Or at least a reference point
To let us know and believe
That where we are standing
Is familiar and solid ground
Visited many times before
But if it escapes a context
And steals us from the now
It can strand us far beyond
Our edge of understanding

Ordinary

2012-02-02T16:18:00.000-08:00

Google Image
Well, today is here
I never waited for it but it is here
Yesterday is gone forever
And tomorrow is just a dream
That may never happen
But now is here – now
And this poem is partly written
Even though I have no idea
Where it is going or
What will ever happen to it
The form it is taking fascinates me
And this moment is so ordinary
That it is wonderful and exciting
I won’t use the word ‘unimportant’ any more

Humming Bird

2012-02-01T11:47:00.000-08:00

Anna's Hummingbird (Calypte anna), EOS photograph

I never knew you lived here all through Winter
Standing on the highest branch of that low tree
Every day except for three north cold splinters
That took permission to stay and play a winter freeze
Sensing a presence you fluttered your wings to see
The black bark bursting with buds under your feet
Springing forth with red then green dogwood leaves
Before cream colored flowers can laugh above the path

The leaves and flowers conger invisible magicians
As the Sun strains closer and stays longer to watch
For just as long as leaves last and bees are fooled
I watch you as your spring arrives surrounding you
Your size a ping pong ball and your weight a nickel
But your seed of life is as grand as any seal in any sea
Other birds follow the changing river to fly some place
That I can never remember but I always knew anyway

So, like you, somehow I knew it would come
Now spring is vibrating to end the cold nights
Like my life, it has drawn around me like a robe
Comfortable and familiar but not quite perfect
And although I don’t know how to make it better
It is still far beyond anything I could ever imagine
And it works, offering everything and twice that
So, in some way like you, Anna, I can fly too

Winter Geese

2012-01-30T10:57:00.000-08:00

Google Image

The snow geese fly across the sky
Everyone feels a winter sigh
Massive V’s are views that please
As white geese fly above bare trees
Spring is straight in all directions
Drawing them toward a full life
Casually leaving things behind
They fly toward spring fully blind
Ahead of dreams that follow them
Enriched by V’s and feathered friends

Learning

2012-01-20T09:42:00.000-08:00

Google image
It’s such an ordinary triumph
To have lived a life this way
Old and bald and shriveled up
Now youth has dropped away

Life is there, no matter what
And it loves us like our dog
It sniffs at busy schedules
Or growls and barks at fog

Always there, bright and new
Our life just marches on
Collecting colored trinkets
Like uneven spots on fawns

There often is, a long dry time
Between each silent sea
A place I know that I can grow
My broken heart’s the fee

It took me really, really long
To wake my beating heart
And I will always love you
For your gentle soothing art

It seems I stood so many times
Before the northern sea
And cast my glance in advance
Of proceeding carefully

Cold water is like a guard dog
And it’s charge; a chilling spree
Unless we really, really want
Our treasure from the sea

Broken hearts will often mend
If we know just where we went
It seldom is the dreamy place
Our ego wanted sent

Footsteps

2012-01-18T16:11:00.000-08:00

Photo from Pixdaus.com
Snow that isn’t pretty anymore
Lies exposed to sand and salt
Beside the city's travel-ways
Ones we drive here, anyway

Cold water calls to the snow
Along roadsides everywhere
Through a slippery shell of ice
Winter invited the snowflakes

The pathway along winter’s river
Pressed and crushed by footprints
Offers proof that invisible others
All passed this way before me

Even though I only feel me
And don’t see anyone else
I am connected to them all
Through my own footprints

The widgeon have all ducked
Into the river's marshy edges
And they whistle as I walk by
Through the falling snowflakes

I stop to watch the river snatch
Then hide snowflakes that fall
Unnoticed beside brown birds
Floating in their important world

Snow

2012-01-16T10:03:00.000-08:00

Google image
Here and there snow
Patchy in its presence
Roads are bare in places
Drivers can’t see in others
The storm moves on its own
Here and there it is or it isn’t

If snow fell everywhere
Then I would just accept it
But it is not everywhere
So I try hard to avoid it
Remembering difficult drives
Through a past that went too fast

We have had our snow now
So winter can breathe easy
As I follow lengthening days
That will slowly defeat winter
And Lead to spring then summer
When heat will decide our days

Winter Light

2012-01-11T12:53:00.000-08:00

Google Image
It seems so very bright
This harsh winter light
That just appeared outside
A cold searing surprise

I am not the only one
On this cold quiet day
To notice the sun's ray
Stir birds, trees and me
With its promise to return

Leaves living beneath sleep
Are bold dreams on winter days
But each of us in our own way
Knows that the world provides
Everything that we ever need

Body and Mind

2012-01-11T11:06:00.000-08:00

Google Image
Our body and our mind
Is really all we can know
In the time we have here
It is up to us to keep them
Strong, flexible and well
And come to know them
Our mind is for learning
About the world we live in
Our body is for moving
To and from the places
We seek to see and know
Strength and flexibility
Are passed to bodies and minds
From clean air and cool water
And we crave to be full
Good food that is simple
Grows proud to serve us
And live with our hearts
As we walk in the world

Children

2012-01-09T18:39:00.000-08:00

My boys a long time ago
Children are life’s blessing granted unto itself
They stand in a place that we chose to let go of
Becoming new parents our children were babies
And all that we did was we shifted our view
Away from our self to follow their wandering

Now they outpace us with stride and bright energy
Now our eyes shift again to uncover our dreams
And finding the love that we brought into life with us
Has changed and deepened with gifts from a child
Revealing that love was our privilege to feel
As a part of god’s heart seeded life with that love

Time

2012-01-08T12:59:00.000-08:00

Google Image
Time holds what has been given
It doesn’t live - it just is, as it is
It’s never been anything else
Although, it knows everything
Inside any moment it’s noticed
It never rethinks its action
It never negotiates a past
And it never doubts itself
Such things are left to us
Twisting and forcing changes
As time watches and smiles
At every button we mend
And every arm we bend

Sound

2012-01-07T16:20:00.000-08:00

Google Image (Desolation Sound BC)

Sound is perfect unless we shop for it
Then it is never enough to fool our mind
Even though it enters through the same ears
And aspires to be as real as its dreams
Of living in a free natural world
Real sound is seldom questioned
But really only confirms or suggests
What is there or what must be there
Real sound emerges from the moment
But the sound we shop for needs to lie
About orchestras, singers, or a stream
And they aren't at all, nearby anymore
The pressed footprint of bought sound
Is carefully cast and then played
To prove it once passed by

Winter Rain

2012-01-03T15:21:00.000-08:00

Google Image
Rain can be dreamed by a grey winter sky
Its water ice cold - but not quite frozen
Into those unique patterns of snowflakes
That float silently down to earth and settle
Into the white and sparkled arms of others
There they all wait to melt and then mix
Becoming the swift rivers and placid lakes
Living between here and a dark Ocean
That accepts each drop without hesitation
Drops that can never be the same again

January

2011-12-27T19:01:00.000-08:00

Google Image

January waits like a new suit

Hung in the future of our closet

Its design seeded in our past

At a place that was too small

When we belonged to the moment

A moment that captured us and asked

What we loved and wanted to feel

Pictures and feelings floated

Inside our private spaces

They answered January’s taunt

Life is short and each of us

Is so limited in our ability

To translate the love we feel

That now we greet January

In every new year

December

2011-12-27T18:06:00.000-08:00

Google Image
December darkness
Family stirs bright
Through short days
But night is dark
Its clouds cast rain
To find us hiding
In places we know
And never forget
Till June takes us
Outside ourselves
Deep into summer
Serving the world
With anxious joy
Or scalded feelings
Offering clay roots
Of life then death
Today then again
Feel the difference
Of quiet taking
Or bold living
Of the present
We listen for
Or the present
We fold into

Presence

2011-12-23T16:19:00.000-08:00

Google image
There is a certain human beauty
In remembering riches from the past
There is a certain human beauty
In seeding promises to the future
There is also a human beauty
That regards neither of these two
Always loving the now that moves
Quite hot and richly hollow at first
As children, animals, and friends
Greet our souls through their eyes

Growing

2011-12-14T12:25:00.000-08:00

Google Image
Life fades fully
Real as a dream
We wide-eyed
Standing alone
Seeing the headlights
Of our own future
Approach without
Judgment or malice
Knowing our wishes
Marking our place
Soft pencil lines
On door frames
Caring belongs
To life itself
Not protecting
But helping us
To reach wiser
And richer ground
Than ever before

Lavender

2011-12-08T13:24:00.001-08:00

Google image
Lavender and mustard
Sweet sleeping fragrance
Slender on a breathing chest
Touching all the countryside
Morning’s sun-dried song
Joins an early bakery
Loving vineyards far beyond
Those gentle turns of cows
Everything dancing through
The heart of its own beauty

Google image

Now

2011-12-05T17:26:00.000-08:00

Google Image

Now is an important instant

Not a journey into the future

Not a reflection into the past

Now's unknown is infinite

Till stepping stones appear

Leading somewhere else from here

It is no wonder we get confused

Living on the knife edge of now

Squeezed between past and future

Until present moments disappear

As surprises from the future

Seeking to orbit in our past

Flashing through our present

Fast and unpredictable like meteors

Yet still and stable as a mountain

Lost Summer

2011-11-29T10:38:00.000-08:00

Flickr image

Winter has fallen
And it means to stay
Leaning its weight
And early darkness
On a soft spoken summer
That was stolen like youth
Now gone without warning
Summer seeded its regrets
We may even want it back
Feeling tricked by silent plans
Of low sun and cold rain
Or a sense that youth
Could have been spent
Differently
In a past that plays still
Frozen and unchanging
While the future floats
Unsettled
Beyond now's firm fence
Planted in present moments
Each one owned and spent
By misers and rich men
Is either lost or savored
While all hearts whisper
Truthfully to the gods
That travel with us

Gold Rush

2011-11-23T11:54:00.000-08:00

Google images
A thousand white geese in the sky
Like a train moving south
Never looking down
Nor to the side
They fly
Calling
Ahead
With
Bright
Trusting
Excitement
Tomorrow’s mist
Waiting for them all
Inviting them back to life
Joining their cherished train
Together all turning their backs
On the simple things they loved
They leave this place behind

Listening to their dreams
That draw us onward
So irresistibly
To a place
I can’t
See

Autumn Leaves

2011-11-16T18:32:00.000-08:00

Google image (Michigan)
The north-east wind blows steady-hard
And the day is blue and dry
As colored leaves are plucked from trees
Still some just won't comply

They fly as fast as animals
That rush across a road
Or birds that soar above the trees
From branches where they stirred

They sang so proud and usefully
Perched green above the land
Now sorted leaves on nearby trees
Are found by autumn's hand

The wind frees all from summer toil
So every leaf can play
By joining leaves from other trees
That live near Halfmoon Bay

Little Fish

2011-11-09T15:24:00.000-08:00

Google image
The season for saving fish is over
As I wash the land out of my nets
And charge the shocker’s battery
I wonder if all the fish survived
In those muddy ditches we seined
High temperatures and low oxygen
Stressed everything that lived there
We saved most from catastrophe
But never thought to make them smile

Push

2011-11-09T06:12:00.000-08:00

Google image

Push against the shoulder of life
Or any other part of it, if you want to
Sometimes, it is necessary to do that
A solid force of loose atoms is mindless
But very present in this worldly place
Always greeting from within its rules
Without judgment’s frown or smile
Without bending to a crooked will
Or following a mind’s argument
It halts us with unwavering love
That we can always depend on

Samsara

2011-11-06T10:14:00.000-08:00

Google image
Samsara threads
Never-ending through
Life and death and birth
Her river spills its water
Replenishing the earth
Then breathes us on
Through dancing stars
Across the silent sky

Google image

Frightened

2011-10-25T12:04:00.000-07:00

Google image

I was a dog you put down once
And I watched you standing there
Searching deeply for lost pain
A past that tethered a neck
The pain that froze a heart
While the warmth of being seen
Lifted us into the love we are

Gratitude

2011-10-20T15:45:00.000-07:00

Google image
Grateful is a view
That colors the world in thanks
Just to be here is enough
In place, if not in time
As time is never here
Its either past or due
But seldom present
Leaving us with place
A gift we always have

Grateful, like the sun
Hides night behind its light
Showing all things in color
And includes us in the view
Of life’s miracle

Ferry Ride

2011-10-17T18:21:00.000-07:00

Google image
I was sitting on the ferry
Looking out the window
When a lady in the front row
Phoned a friend on her cell phone
“I just saw a fish jump”
She said loudly with enough excitement
For all of us all that were sitting there
“I have never seen a fish jump
When I have ridden on the ferry before”
She bubbled loud to her friend on the phone
I won’t deny that she saw a miracle
Or that a fish jumped out from the sea
But miracles live in the tiny ripples too
Ones that race to the sun across waves on the sea
They are the laughter from gods
To the wind that moved them into life
Through an empty stillness of waiting
But this is my experience and
If I told everyone that sat near me
About the beauty of the wind’s dimples
As they race across the surface of the sea -
They would look at me as if I were crazy
And I am hardly ever crazy…
So I looked for the fish that jumped into the past
And then I turned back to the ripples on the sea
As they were beautiful and they were there
For me and everyone else to see

Meaning

2011-10-13T18:33:00.000-07:00

Google image
There is so much meaning in this place
And so often we only see what we know
Every now and then we see something new
Something we cannot understand at all
An unknown that shatters into questions
Questions large and small and in between
Questions lodging in hearts waiting to bleed
Simple answers that should be easy to find
When asked, the universe shimmers with truth
So many truths - which ones should we gather?
Which ones will become our foundation stones
For understanding this universe that we live in
This universe that surrounds us in aging infancy

Two things we all brought are love and freedom
They never tarnish and travel with us forever
They can test and measure truth against life
They can light our path and smile at others
Until we have become every one of them
Until truth holds no meaning to be measured

After the Storm

2011-10-11T11:28:00.000-07:00

Today the forest is spare but strong
That is - whatever is left of the forest
After yesterday’s early autumn storm
The ground seems littered with leaves
And brittle branches with leaves attached
That haven’t changed their colors yet
While light shines into all the places
Where big trees have fallen through
From the sky that held their dreams
Onto soil still gripping broken roots
Even after all the wind's tearing and tossing
The forest floor seems clean to me
It just needs tidying here and there
To be done over time without help
In its own simple way

Raindrop

2011-10-05T07:00:00.000-07:00

Google image
The beauty of water
Floats beyond my knowing
But I think of it anyway
All the beautiful places I've been
Stood by water
Sometimes quiet as if asleep
Sometimes rushing somewhere else
But water was always there
Merging into life around it
Willing to be used
Willing to be praised
Well able to float a miracle
But never drawn to magic

I walked through
Early morning summer gardens
Raindrops gem-like for heavy blooms
Spilled puddles cuddled full
To nourish roots in rich soil
While plants and water share
Their wet and colorful lives

Walking into morning now
While darkness is still narrow
Yet knowing the sun will come
I notice a large bead of rain
Cupped in the colored palm
Of a dry autumn leaf
The balanced ball of water
Still offers all its beauty
Silently, alone, in solitude
Vibrating with joy and twinkling
Through me - past every star

Pink

2011-10-04T07:47:00.000-07:00

Google images
Pink is important to us here right now
But it is not important there, some may say
Where we came from - where we are going
But the idea behind pink is always important
Everywhere we’ve been - everywhere we’ll go
Most of us have seen what pink can mean

Barefoot

2011-10-01T10:09:00.000-07:00

Google images
Living and laughing
Two happy choices
Flowered by souls
That navigate
Uncharted coastlines
Of life and longing
From here to there
Oiled grit to silk
And sometimes back
While pain and sadness
Teach us lifting
Of joy through darkness
And moist mossy places
Where we stand
Barefooted and unafraid

Water

2011-09-26T07:55:00.000-07:00

flickr.com photo
Water whispers sweet and blue
Crystal beauty shimmering
From summers of our mind
While frozen blocks of thirst
Melt gritty into fields of greed
Surrendering sweet forgiveness
Water’s envisioned embrace
A whispered intimacy
Spills life on all in need

Full-Hearted

2011-09-24T09:08:00.000-07:00

Google image
I don’t think I realized
Just how fragile we are
Or how strong we can be
When we see the truth
And don’t look through it

When we love our self
No more than all others
That we stand among

When youth and age
And life and death
Are soft human dreams
That sleep behind truth
But stand beside life

Youth and age and life
Never loved me more
Than any neighbor
Still I reached out
As they passed by me
Both of us empty-handed

Now, I face the truth
Holding life full-hearted
Walking with the miracle
That never left my side

Sun

2011-09-19T06:14:00.000-07:00

On a grand day when the sun is strangely new
And I can feel from deep within my longing
It holds the gift I brought to stand beside the sun

The simple courage to ride love’s wake
And rest a child within this womb
To find its light and feel its warmth
Catching sparks from spinning stones

Every heart knows the wheel that turns within in the sun
And warms the heart of others that stand alone before it
Help us know through every night the sun is always there

Not Ever

2011-09-18T13:43:00.000-07:00

Never is a part of always
Sharing all it is with nothing
Owning everything that knows it
The emptiness between the paint
Bare page between the words
Quiet breath beneath a song
And love between loathing
It has its own importance

Separate

2011-09-18T12:52:00.000-07:00

flickr.com photo

I am separate from belonging
So afraid of lies and wronging
I listen only to my longing
Ears attuned to gentle gonging

All I want to feel is love
Searching for its gentle glove
Finding only push and shove
Ruffled feathers from above

Take me fast and take me early
Bring me home dancing whirly
Life can seem sometimes surly
Standing soft but muscles burly

Happy that my soul can stand
Underneath my feet like sand
Wishing for each wave to land
Soft and warm beneath my hand

The Sun

2011-09-16T08:43:00.000-07:00

Google images
On a grand day
When the sun
Is strangely new
And I can feel
From deep within
My longing that was brought
To stand within the sun

Such simple courage
Riding love’s wake
To become life's child
Standing with the sun
Finding its light
Feeling its warmth
Catching bright sparks
From a spinning stone

I know in my heart
I will become the wheel
That turns within the sun
And warms the heart of others
That stand alone before it
Until beyond that moment
Help me always know
The sun is always there

OM

2011-09-12T16:10:00.000-07:00

Google image
The long and deep vibration
That rises through my body
Is from this world - not from me
From the very center of the earth
Where fire is reborn
Into every new moment it finds
It paints the meaning of its knowing
Across a silent night of stars
While we watch the beauty unfold
Such intimate sharing of body and voice
Helps me watch my own feelings flower
Into the truth of life’s longing
And to know the privilege of seeing
Truth find its freedom so easily
Even from the dark prison
Of our own borrowed thoughts

Hot Dry Days

2011-09-12T16:02:00.000-07:00

An unachievable
Dark and dusty blue
Is clustered into Oregon Grapes
On September’s colored branch
Guarded behind the stabbing pain
Of sharp dry needles, molded
Into short pointed fingers
Stationed along the warped edge
Of little brittle red and brown leaves
Dropped from the protective sweater
Of a young and tender plant
Food favored by deer

The bracken has given up green
For parched yellow in late summer
And waits in shrinking form and detail
For water to play its miracle
From passing clouds or tending gardeners
It really doesn’t matter
No thanks is ever whispered
Just a change from yellow to green
No stories of colorful marches
Back to here from deaths edge
The threshold that waits for bracken
Returning it to the dirt that dreamed

A Child’s Vision

2011-09-05T15:37:00.000-07:00

Children of nature
Feel a heart beating
In their own chest
And follow its footsteps
Forward through space
Sometimes
Backward through time
Leading them home
Where they started
Such a different color

Fulfilled

2011-09-02T12:23:00.000-07:00

There are times in my life
When I feel lonely
And I feel anxious
As if I am all alone
Stuck in this body
Lodged in this time
I know it doesn’t matter
What side of life’s line
We stand on - it is the same
Hard work, maybe suffering
If we choose it
If we can’t shed suffering
Tears can drown freedom
Each day they find a way
Down our cheeks
From the flame in our gut
As they try to leave our body
But listening carefully
A strong knowing of truth
Surfaces through our body
Unafraid of mind
And finding a voice
It says “I am with you”
And “relax into me child
There is no need to seek me
In this beautiful place
That has called you
And found you
Willing to be
Present”

Your challenge is young
Compared to the wire some walk
Where the most careful creation
Can never be owned
But is forever a friend of life
And such a friend
That many seek and serve
Their need to be free
From a solitary existence
So let go of what you think you love
Offer your strength to life
And nourish us all

Summer Geese

2011-08-31T13:03:00.000-07:00

Google image
Geese show beauty
In a physical world
They wing a V
In the air
In the water
Forming a line
The social cackles
Are ever so gentle
But honking is brash
When they stand alone
So unafraid of sameness
They can’t be told apart
They need to be feared
When standing too close
But are always admired
Flying in celebrations
And floating in lines
Competent on water
So certain in air

Deeper Listening

2011-08-31T12:17:00.000-07:00

Sitting there waiting
Listening hard to the world
Hoping for something
A line or a whorl

Giving up gently
Accepting the quiet
Watching hot richness
Vent up from black tar

There is no way to share
And no one to tell
Life burns like a flame
On a wick - unaware

The past and the future
Are separate - apart
Waiting for nothing
Not a crow or a spark

When I finally gave up
Forcing the time
Moments fly by
And issue a hum

Sitting indifferent
Like a moon in the sky
I felt other voices
Try tears in my eye

There is no way around it
A place knows itself
And I’ve lost my importance
That flame watched me melt

Summer Wind

2011-08-29T14:36:00.000-07:00

The wind seems in a hurry
Pushing through the trees
Waking summer leaves
Turning soft green bellies
Toward a dark grey sky
The wind has promised rain
Green leaves never complain
Growing all through summer
Toward a colored wall of fall
Exchanging leafy green
For an autumn colored coat
After helping needy branches
Feel the wind that pushes by
Pulling changing seasons
And weather through the sky

Shadow

2011-08-26T09:20:00.000-07:00

Early morning summer sun
Finds silver threads of web
Left behind on windows
By wishful spiders descending
All departed, all long gone
Straight line streaks of light
Play along thin threads of web
Up and down, up and down
When I move my head
Back and forth, back and forth
And the sun burns on
Heating up the day
While spiders ready themselves
For the fall and a winter
They have never experienced
But have always known

Belief

2011-08-22T14:36:00.000-07:00

Walking certain
In old clothes of
Age and wisdom

Finding one thing
That’s perched far
Beyond the view
Of love and reason

Smiling at one thing
Near where I stand
Makes a difference

Awakening

2011-08-22T10:58:00.000-07:00

Have you ever smelled
Life’s sweet breath
Earthy River of body love
Intoxicating for mind
Testing ground of souls
I hug others with my eyes
I love others with my ears
As the world reassures me
Through my own hands

I know the pain of others
Pure progress in that place
Where we all started
And must end at the same time
Returning again and again
Without rehearsal
To a place that is lit
By stage lights of truth
That never dim or burn out

Darkness

2011-08-22T07:26:00.000-07:00

Darkness is the stillness
That stands with silence
Brought to life by light
Holding the essence
From which life is made
It is the out-breath of rest
Between bold efforts of life
That takes us to new places
We never dreamed about before
Places that wait in our stillness

Snake

2011-08-15T16:00:00.000-07:00

Big fat and solid black
A Snake stopped my feet
My mind couldn't move
Stuck in ancient shock
That froze my body still

I had no choice
My feet were stopped
By a short loop that had
No patience for pondering
It already knew the answer
To the old question that
Slithered across the ground

When my mind
Joined the party
It said 'there are no
Venomous snakes here'
It also said 'there are
No black snakes here either'
My mind wants to know
What is it – what’s its name
Why is it so fat and so black

I could feel the
Chemicals in my body
Loosen their grip
Surprise was disappearing
As my mind was leading
Me away from old feelings
Of helplessness and fear

Where did the snake go
Why have I never seen one
In 18 years of walking here
As I am given a safe picture
Of the snake by my mind

Feeling fear less and then less
As seconds pass – I realize
How close I just stood
To long ago man
Some things change so slowly

Dreams

2011-08-15T11:36:00.000-07:00

Sometimes life seems to be a dream
And dreams happen when I sleep
There are so few rules in dreamland to follow
Car doors have been songs with broken locks
Fish with bright ties and white shirts give talks
Now - how can anything that silly seem real
I realize that dreams are measured against life
With many rigid rules that don't all make sense

If life itself is a dream, how is it that we walk on it
Why do we see it, feel it, touch it, hear it, taste it
And recognize it through other ancient senses too
Like up and down and time and where our soul needs to go
These rules and these things make life seem real enough

When life ceases to love its dreams
A solid door blocks our way to freedom
And dreams that drew us open-eyed through sleep
Become fantasies of frustration - blind in gardens of truth
Dreams must laugh at us with mystery as we dig for understanding
With strong commitment while using use the short spade of a human mind

Red Embers

2011-08-09T16:06:00.000-07:00

Shutterstock photograph

The feel of strong heavy paper
Thick and blank textured bone
Patiently waiting for a pen
To trace its bold meaning
Or for paints to color a sheet
Splashed by some other soul
A truth drawn from eternity
Where essence can arise
Bright as a winter sun
Lighter than weightless -
Smoke from red embers
Dreams that revisit us
To captain blind footsteps
That climb onto our dreams
And play the music we follow
Through the silences of life

A Hot Day

2011-08-09T15:53:00.001-07:00

A hot day in the summer
Seems to set the voice we hear
To waves and water and shade
That all speak more clearly
And louder, with more persistence
And even more emphatically
At this summer time of year
Our body dials in the voice
The language we hear reflects
The season we stand in
As it grows through the ground
Near the edges of our feet

Heat seeks the sweet lips of summer
Drawing us to open doors and windows
For the breeze to enter carrying scents
Of purple lavender and white jasmine
Yellow faced bees outside visit scents
And colors that flowers make for them

One day winter will rise
Steam off hot flat asphalt
Or invisible sunbeams to chase
Frost off the face of a fall roof
At that time when light and shadows
Are cut straight along ruler lines
And winter carries its own dreams
With frost and ice and snow
Wrapped in the cold moisture of cloud
Winter words shine bright crystals
Under the light of a far away sun
Then hide in summer freezers till
They believe their deeper meaning
And rise from the ground to greet us

Maple Leaf

2011-08-04T16:20:00.000-07:00

My friend and I stood in a remote forest 11 years ago and watched a leaf fall 120 feet to the ground - it was the only leaf that seemed to be falling at that moment. We both watched its unending fall through infinite silence with profound clarity. I do not really know what he understood from that moment but later on our walk he fell to the ground in the slow and graceful manner that the leaf showed us. He was unharmed. My newest understanding of that long ago occurrence emerged 10 minutes ago with this poem.

google image

Falling with grace
A big maple leaf
Spiraling down
Through time
Yellow- red
And green
Not dead
Circling
Back to
Soil

Have you done this before?
Your fall into grace
Your beauty was perfect
It alone in the full world
Caught and held our eye
We never sought to help
We never felt sad
Pure colored beauty
A job well done
A life well lived
And it left us both
Somehow trying harder
To live life well
To live life fully
How could such a teaching
Reach out and touch us both
Through the silence
Of your speechless beauty

Waiting

2011-07-31T12:40:00.000-07:00

Waiting, waiting, waiting....
We all know what will come
It is already here
But you still wait
For permission
Just to meet it
In its public light
Running with fashion
Moving toward light
Or moving toward dark
It is all the same
If you think about it

Choose to be free
From the sticky
Fragrant syrup of life
I felt I could help
But nobody wants it
Sometimes I sat there
Frightened inside life
Waiting for soft death
Hoping to win - Something
I am not sure what was near
But I do know what is here
And I can't know what will be

All I know
Is I am here
Wanting every soul
To be freed, to be free
Again, and again, forever free
To find a place beyond that space
That tries to swallow me
That tree may want to follow
But you should chase its stillness
To the place beyond that space
Where freedom flies at any speed
And in any direction, it chooses

Summer Moment

2011-07-25T16:12:00.000-07:00

Wild Campion - google photograph

Today is summer, almost august
But no one feels that way
Summer is happening in secret
Beneath human awareness
The garden needs no water this year
It loves to care for itself
Creating surprises of color
Where they are least expected
Hues we have never seen before
This seems to please the bees
Oregano and Lavender flowers
Abuzz with bees’ yellow faces
Side pockets full of pollen
As hummingbirds visit wild Campion
Then flatten the leaves of Red Maple
With their fast fluttering flight

I left the Garden to its own busy world
And walked toward the Rocky Shore
That forever overlooks the ocean
My intention was just to notice it
I really didn’t want anything more

Walking through the forest toward the beach
I was washed by the rich salty smell
Of a glimmering intertidal band
The smell told me the sea was near
Even before I reached it – its the same smell
That tells sailors 'land is ahoy'
The ocean’s rolling breath
Was pushed through the trees
By a summer warm breeze
From a place overlooking the shore
I noticed the infinite beauty of waves
Bringing messages from an eternal source
Across the sea – no matter how far
And never noticing the sunlight
That spilled sparkles all over its back

Everything was moving in the silent breeze
Wildflowers were waving within the world
The longest stems and largest flowers
Swayed the furthest and moved the slowest
Shorter grasses moved much faster and
Seized at any direction that was uncluttered
Cliff stone carried moss and short grass
In the lines and patches across its back
Proving the sun still held the secrets
Of up and of down - deep in its burning wisdom

Some rocks had fallen or pulled away from their cliffs
Places they had embraced since the sea first retreated
I don’t think separation was ever felt between them
It is just happens to rocks – eventually they weather
But the separation spoke clearly of constant change
Inevitable change that happens forever
In every moment change is gradual and rapid
Change may find us in a place we don’t like at first
Or it may indifferently take a place we deeply loved away
The silent, bleached and branch-less wood on the beach
Reminded me that every human was like the drifted wood
A storied past that brought them right to where they stand
A story that is, for sticks or flesh, unique and precious and real

My attention was drawn back to the sea
Boats and boats and boats passed by
Appearing and then disappearing
From and to the high mysteries of rock
That stood protecting the inlet where I sat
Texada Island is always there sleeping slowly
A wide and shadowy-blue but earthy separation
Between the sky and the silver sparkled sea
Seams with sky and sea were different
But perfect and without voids to fill
The bottom of the island seemed to float
Sucked flawless and tight to a curved horizon of sea
The jagged top of the island was easy
For the sky to find through the forest
And it seemed to naturally know
Every smooth and jagged piece of it

Big boats, little boats, fast boats, slow boats
Quiet boats, noisy boats, fishing boats, row boats
Pleasure boats tug boats, ski boats and tow boats
Sailboats under sail and sailboats under power
All of them tried to cut the sea in two
Between the distant island and where I sat
Each boat was unique, each boat was beautiful
But none could cleave the landscape in two
The harbour seal out there never even tried
She bobbed far-off in waves to find her breath
Then spend it on the drama of another fishing dive
Some boats sent the wakes of their effort
All the way to the shore near where I sat
Where their waves broke with empty protest
Falling flat to their bellies exhausted by beach
And so much tripping along the rocky shore
Sailboats were the quietest and the neatest to watch
They held their wakes in - but the sea mended herself
Tight and easy – right under their stern

The place where I sat was old black rock
And surrounded by green moss and white lichen
Red arbutus and light green maples stood by
I rested in the waving shade of shore pines
That place is surely full of life and complete
Every day that ever happens - with or without me
Being so open to this place left me feeling sad
It pulled at me when I turned to leave
A longing ember of loss and sadness glowed
Grief washed in like a wave over my heart
The wave came from someplace I know but can’t remember
And something whispered through the grief to me
“On the other side of that pain is light” and
"In the light of that moment is a knowing that will last forever"
A knowing that parts of everything are dieing
A knowing that parts of everything are being born
At the same time and in every single moment that is
As with any visit of grief we can know that we loved deeply
And grief, like the rock, will eventually break away
But Love is always, like the wind and the waves,

Forever seeking us from its eternal place

Middle Bay (flickr.com image)

Driving

2011-07-20T10:06:00.000-07:00

Sun rays on the outside
Draw me to the inside
Where I can find myself

Feeling my smile
Reflecting the sun
Far, far above me

But too close and too high
Are walls that confine me
To this imagined path
Through a neighborless life

Faith

2011-07-19T10:08:00.000-07:00

Let life shower
As dry sand falls
Onto smooth dunes
That dream it

The world is large and
Safely pulled around us

Tell me which ones found
Clear tracks to follow
Across the desert landscape
Wild animals live there

And let the rain fall
Sand upon the dunes that dream it
Every grain a joy to wholeness
Wholeness loves us all
Lost and unafraid

Walking Dizzy

2011-07-13T13:28:00.000-07:00

Walking dizzy through a tunnel
Light at both ends calls to me
But in the face of careful listening
Nothing knowing speaks to me
So elbows guide me along this tunnel
Uncertain at every footstep

The light at the end seems larger
Than the light where I began
I can't even remember why
I chose to walk through here
But there isn't enough room
Between the tracks and the walls
Of this stone cold tunnel
To let a train pass if it comes

I have lost so much time
To planning what I'll do
When or if the train arrives
As promised by these tracks
I hardly ever even noticed
What I passed along my way

The light where I started
And that light where I must go
Have gripped my attention
Too long and too strong
To let me understand
The nature of this tunnel
Or the fears that all complain
As I hurry through this life

Fully Awake

2011-07-13T08:16:00.000-07:00

Gentle morning rain
Makes me feel awake
It pulls me into feeling
Excitement or discomfort
It really doesn’t matter
Every feeling is precious
Gold to a miner in darkness
With his roof still intact
Through a rich moment
That lies strictly in faith
Fully outside knowledge
Yet fully inside love
And so very much richer
In the light of death’s knowing

Looking Up

2011-07-04T17:01:00.000-07:00

Looking up from a park bench
Into the steady summer breeze
Resting inside the warm shadow
Of cottonwoods as they silently drink
Deeply from water in the ground below me
And filled to fullness with life
They radiate satisfied joy into the world
Greeting all visitors to life’s surprise
Too many things are here
To see or feel and know
So I greet what I see
Three spider strands
Strung tight in the wind
Tiny speckled unseen souls
Still tethered to their tree
Invisible to glazed or tired eyes
No part of their strands
Can find me without teasing
Indigo, silver or ruby from the sun
So there must be even more of them
The strands' taught stillness in the breeze
Proves their length and strength would stretch
My own beliefs far past breaking
Pulling away from borrowed colors
My eyes find cotton-white down
Floating slowly above the strands
Freed from high and secret places
Nourished to seed over deep-rooted dreams
While my dog finds peace on patient flat grass
Dragonflies, hummingbirds, marsh wrens and more
Fly through the sky on their way to somewhere
That is only revealed when it's reached
And they all seem to know the trees
Better than I as their missions unfold
In front of naked never-questioning leaves
While a crow guards its nest
Calling harshly from silent branches
Above me - just to let me know
I am seen in the shade where I sit
As a threat to its young (which I am not)
And planes and clouds and insects
Fly safely through life's air we borrow
From the well of all things real

Contrast

2011-07-04T11:38:00.000-07:00

Light and dark
Soft and loud
Sweet and sour
Brushstrokes
From a pallet
Of color
Offers form
To the grainy world
We walk through
Wondering
What is
Really there
And why does
Everything
Get divided
Into smaller
And smaller
Bits
When what we seek
Is to understand
The whole

Summer Rain

2011-06-24T09:10:00.000-07:00

Big drops of heavy rain
Make the rain fall hard
Make the rain fall loud
Softly mask my vision
Dimples the wet road
Between small rivers
Racing along gutters
Dividing around tires
That rest like rounded
Boulders in fast flowing
And rapidly rising rivers
But every now and then
Wet cars with windshield
Wipers slapping and tires
Running bravely on noise
Pass by my glass window

Colors

2011-06-22T16:07:00.000-07:00

The puffy, pulled-apart clouds seem
Wispy-white between lots of cyan
And are far beyond the cottonwood seed
That flies well over my head
In a strong warm summer breeze
That blows beneath a forceful sun
The wind offers soft blue edges
To cool dark shadows of trees
That lie flat on green ground
Where I throw a yellow ball
For a happy brown dog to chase

Daytime Moon

2011-06-22T10:06:00.000-07:00

The moon looks to be a circle
During the daytime when it is there
It looks white and thin and flat
And separated from everything
Suspended at safe distance
Quarantined for its life
But it is the moon
And it may not even know loneliness
In its never ending
Always changing sky
As long as I know it is there
Then no distance separates us
All forms and senses rest aside
In moments of untethered love
All distance dissolves between us
And is flooded with being and filled
With a subtle comforting hum
That touches everything

The Moment

2011-06-17T15:04:00.001-07:00

When the moment comes
The wind will blow from the east
Bringing dark clouds to follow grey
And cold rain or lightening and thunder
Or the sun can give its place to the moon
So the dark drifts down below its night
Until enchanted stars awaken, bright
Then you found a larger change
That never repeats itself

We often fail to notice change
Among all things we'll never tame
So they easily often wander
In and out-of blank refrain
As if we simply owned them
Or held their changing leash
So we could make a weather suit
Holding breaths or eating peach

It is the quieter turns of change
Like birth and love and death
That touch us unexpectedly
And only here or there
These seem so very personal
And by far too-extra large
To simply only happen when
Their waking moment stirs

Never

2011-06-14T11:00:00.000-07:00

Never
Is a place
We can’t know
And we can’t go
But it still exists
For it holds power
To draw our attention
From where we stand
And toss it elsewhere
Beyond all horizons
Into the dreams of our dream
Where we will never
Find our own feet

Robin’s eggs

2011-06-02T12:41:00.000-07:00

Robin’s eggs are blue
That might just invite
The young to fly
Toward the sky
And not the ground
Where they might drown
Is there a reason I can cite?
Why robin eggs are blue

Forest Scent

2011-05-26T16:51:00.000-07:00

The forest smells sweet today
Moisture from recent rainfall
Knows every birthplace in the land
And found the places it needs to be
Soft in dark soil under trees
Fresh in ponds for the beaver
And all that’s leftover - glitters
From a fabric of forest leaves

The sweet smell of new life
Bubbles within the forest
Charging places here and there
With heat and light and moisture
Igniting spring’s excitement - seeding
Life out of silence all around me
To rest beneath a quilted canopy
Sewn by songs into beautiful birds

Life is Ancient

2011-05-25T10:13:00.000-07:00

Life is ancient and the world too real
To revolve around what we imagine
I watch the truth turn the world
As it draws all life through change
Dancing, glimmering, spinning
With each note of discovery
Through every breath and beyond
The comfort we remember

Interior Nature

2011-05-24T12:24:00.000-07:00

My nature inside
Landscaped in darkness
Stands holding hands
With a world outside
Streams with themes
Lead to oceans of grace
Carrying both worlds
Into eternal change

Nature always knows me
Her streams and oceans
So easily find me here
Anytime I notice them
Anytime I need them
They help me know
I am loved and blessed
And rest pure and simple
Like a solid red stone
On a beach of thousands

Whale

2011-05-19T07:51:00.000-07:00

I watched its back rise through the surface

It had to be a whale. It must have been a whale.

I watched my mind search to preserve itself

I asked it to rest quiet and leave that job to me

It was a whale – at least it breathed air, lived in the sea

And crested right in front of me – where I loved us all

It moved water with its body and blew air from its blowhole

For me and others to use in any way we needed to

Native Bee

2011-05-18T13:07:00.000-07:00

The sun and the moon
The day and the night
Black hair like a fur
Darker than midnight
Over shadowed moon
Two stolen strips
Thin but yellow
From a dandelion
In daytime sun
Doing exactly
What it always
Knew to do
Harvest pollen
From flowers
It already knows
Showering life
Into flower’s fire
For children to find

Birdsong

2011-05-16T14:22:00.000-07:00

Birdsongs offer warmth to sun
They lighten food for flight
And please a place in me
Just as red fingers
Of reawakened maples
Play forever with noon day sun
Their flat fingers, dark red on top
And soft red light below
Must please bees
That fly by to stay alive
Survival in their body of bliss
A great distraction
That sits forever, undigested
In the well muscled crop
Of eternity

Dandelions and Daises

2011-05-11T14:18:00.000-07:00

Dandelions and Daises
Stand free in spring grass
Their frothy colors tidal
Except today in cold rain
They wither tight and close
If I hadn’t seen them yesterday
I wouldn’t even notice them now
Mistakes dropped on the ground
Waiting for the mower
To tidy up the lawn

I never knew how important
The sun’s warm guidance was
For these pretty plants
That live welcomed now
In grassy park fields
Alongside the river
Weeds that are pardoned
Enemies of their grassy world
But state through the brightness
Of their white and yellows
The bold and clear confidence
Of their beauty

Tomorrow when the sun
Finds a warm and cloudless
Place in the sky
These flowers will remember me
With a thousand reflected suns
Standing in their field

Trees

2011-05-03T08:33:00.000-07:00

Leaves and branches and roots
Plus all the other things we see
And hear or taste or smell or touch
All keep their secrets dark from me
I have never found a finished box

Leaves don’t last – you know
But they practice letting go
Then circle back to life somehow
After helping partnered branches see
The next good place they need to be

With help from leaves and roots
A branch can penetrate the world
It knows the ancient rules for trees
Those rules that keep us out
Still invite a simple gaze of ease

I wonder where their magic lives
I have seen it sparkle bright in sap
A juice that smiles to roots and leaves
Sun's warm breeze and summer hats

But roots that hold below the land
Can harbour lots of things
Some seem to last forever
Others renew each spring

I think we shouldn’t split it up
This tree is just a tree
Beneath its leaves and branches
Live things we’ll never see

Morning Deer

2011-04-28T11:22:00.000-07:00

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

2011-04-26T12:30:00.000-07:00

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

2011-04-26T09:11:00.000-07:00

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

2011-04-21T09:26:00.000-07:00

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

2011-04-18T16:06:00.000-07:00

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

2011-04-18T07:09:00.000-07:00

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

2011-04-17T18:36:00.000-07:00

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

2011-04-14T18:37:00.000-07:00

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

2011-04-11T14:16:00.000-07:00

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

2011-04-07T14:44:00.000-07:00

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

2011-04-03T13:13:00.000-07:00

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

2011-04-01T11:02:00.000-07:00

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

The Earth

2011-03-23T16:38:00.000-07:00

The earth is all we have
As long as we are here
Until we see through
The blackness of the night
Until we know the sounds
Of truth and speculation
Until the mystery falls away
And the spirit flees to home
Where the warmth and light
That we let go of so long ago
Waits forever for us
We longed for that place
Until we forgot
It was missing
Even though I know
It’s been there all the time
In the ground, all around

Quiet Band of Cloud

2011-03-21T12:07:00.000-07:00

A gentle rhythm played by ocean waves
Swashes up from rocks below
A hypnotic whisper of waves wishing
To be hushed in the arms of their creator

Far across the water in the distance
A single band of cloud rests below its sky
And floats above its sea
Needing to be seen, wishing to be warmed

The cloud giving itself fully to the morning sun
Is slowly lost into its own fragile gift
And feels the death of its own white presence
Dissolve into an horizon of knowing

Waves still carry their soft random rhythm
Up the beach and stir broken shells by my feet
And then slide down to the ocean
To be hushed back to sleep in its arms

The little stream behind me
Hurries singsong melodies
From voices of last night’s tree frogs
Dissolved into its waters
Rushing them bright and fast past me to the sea

Privilege

2011-03-15T13:52:00.000-07:00

A sense of privilege
Lives within me
It dresses
Under my ego

Its royal blue fabric is marked
By a bright discordant thread
Of anxiety stitched tightly
Throughout its measure

Anxiety evaporates immediately
When the thread is pulled
Through the heart of creation
Letting privilege stand alone

Tsunami

2011-03-11T14:47:00.000-08:00

Google Image
A wave in the darkness
From far across the sea
Left me standing dry on sand
We all know the tide is there
We know the wave will come
But we don’t know when
And we don’t know where
So many sit on the beach
Watching for the mystery
That we all breathe
In with every breath
I wonder how much
Energy it takes
To deafen ourselves
Against the wind
Of its truth

Embrace
Every crimson sunset
Sleep well in every night
You are loved
And that is enough
To float you softly
Upon any wave
That may ever come
To find you

Herring Gull

2011-03-11T13:01:00.000-08:00

Google images
They aren’t just called
Herring Gulls
For no reason at all
They are called
Herring Gulls
Because they eat Herring

And they don’t just
Quietly eat herring
They hover noisily
And excitedly
In a flock
Over a ball of herring
That rolls and boils into the
Disappearing center
Of itself

Herring
Unafraid and unaware
Of danger in the sky
Draws seabirds to switch
Into the rich diet
They were made for
Into the deadly game
They were named for
A simple Herring Gull
Can find Herring
Better than any boat
With new and fancy gear