The River

River water deepens
Under heavy winter mists
Silver sheets of raindrops
Shroud empty swirling nests

Low or fully flowing
The river spends its breath
Deftly sorting gravels
Where sockeye salmon nest

River ever-flowing
Along its ancient course
Wearing through a landscape
That knows the river's source

River flowing endless
Can never lose its way
Its water streaming forward
Has forgotten where it played

Pebbles

Crunching speckled pebbles
On the shore beneath my feet
Reminding me of people
All the same and yet unique

Shifting in the breaking surf
Drying in the sun
Pebbles lying on the beach
Rest before they run

Pebbles at the mercy
Of waves and winter tides
Waiting for the right time
To turn and sink and rise

Summer Seed

Life wrapped me in its warmth
Now, kindled by its light
I long to burn strong
And I long to burn bright

Snuggled inside nature
An ever-changing song
Inside its perfect ocean
A heartbeat bumps along

Kitty

Cloaked in grey, white and black
The cat was easily overlooked
On a ledge of the bare rock face
That spans across the back yard
He was waiting perfectly still
Under gentle swaying shadows
Of leaves and branches that float
Silently across the rock face
The Kitty holds motionless
An ancient predator is hiding
Still and silent on a rock ledge

I noticed him waiting there
And felt the timeless danger
Of that steady threatening gaze
As the backyard predator crouched
I watched and waited in frozen time
While bees buzzed with purpose
And Butterflies fluttered loops
Above and below the hidden cat
Unaware of his presence
While Kitty was just being
Just who he's always been

Spring Breeze

Leaves unseen in the first breeze of spring
All found places on bare branches of winter trees
Not even one single leaf was left unfastened
They attached, then unfurled and grew so fast
I hardly even noticed them appear in my garden
Now every leaf instinctively follows the sun
Holding forever to branches over fresh cut grass
The leaves rustle in the cool afternoon breeze
As the spring wind plays with the chime
That hangs expectantly at a corner of our porch
Hummingbirds, bees and dragonflies are working
Adding their life music to the rustle of new leaves
While the neighbour muscles an old power mower
Over large rocks hidden in the tall grass
Scattered here and there in a neglected yard
That sound overwhelms the delicate symphony
of Spring that I have been listening to

When the breeze falls off
And the power mower stops
The wind chimes hang silent
But now I hear the song of a Robin
running across the yard
And the buzz of a black bee squeezing
Under sun warmed siding behind me
As the cat sleeps curled

Seeing and Believing

There are some things
We can never really see
The sun shines so bright
It overwhelms our vision
And the universe of stars
That burn bright beyond it
Never appear with the sun
Yet they're certainly there

Special is the quiet star
When we glimpse it in the sky
If we try to look right at it
It disappears from our sight
Though we know it is there
Just like the sun
Just like a distant star
Just like God

Thankyou

The empty echoing call
From the Raven's darkness
Pierces the silent forest
Seaking out a hint of Spring

The loud and wooden drumming
Of a Woodpecker on his tree
Establishing a territory
Before he feeds on ants

A couple walking down a country lane
Hand-in-hand, crunches crisp on gravel
Far away somewhere
Plans with other words

Thankyou for this dream

Sing To Me Wind

Sing to me wind
Shaking the branch
Speak to me wave
Soaking the beach
Stand over me tree
Strong in the storm

Am I the only thing
That doesn't know
Where I should be?
Am I the only one
That doesn't know
What I should do?

I can hear the wind
I can see the waves
I can feel the rain
As I search my heart
But still I don't know
What I must do

Late Autmn Light

The sharpened steel
Of autumn's Light
Spills soft colours
Over rippled skin
On the Salish sea
Cutting summer free
Along a distant bank
Of autumn coloured cloud
That reaches deep into
Silent dark water

I sit on this boat
Passing by logs
Washed to the sea
Like floating bones
From flooded banks
As I search for whales

Tethered in her berth
Rounded waves reflect
Off the steel hull
And run politely
Under black ripples
Shivered by the breeze
That finds us all waiting
Before the fog floods in
Damp under darkness

Be Mine

Hot, Dry, Dusty

And Unfamiliar

This West Coast Season of Summer

After so many years

I have become afraid

And feel very vulnerable

A small sensitive human

Mortal,

In every moment

Anxious,

When any opportunity exists

At Peace,

Once in a while

But only

When I am too tired

To find another's weakness

In me

Yet always loving more

So I embrace us

Till death parts us

I am yours

Wilderness Flower

Love's privilege owes nothing
It's silent miracle
Like sunshine lighting a leaf
Or rain water bathing a root
Nourishes life
Opening us

Autumn Moon

I don't know the tides before me
Like I know the ones before
When my mind launched its thoughts
From a semi-circled shore
Where I floated in the whitecaps
Unafraid when I survived
Now, I only seem to worry
About the next rising tide
The one that comes to claim me
Like all the rest have done
As I swim into the salty foam
And float beneath the sun

Spring Day

Spring just broke Winter's track
And cold rain has stopped falling
The sun's azure sky has come back
Tell me now, after this many years
How I could forget Summer's visit?
Long hot days of summer will shimmer
Before I long for Fall's darkness
And winter's wet to reign down
Making me feel life's shortness
But now the tulips are stretching
Up toward their coloured flowers

Leaves

Fall leaves don't die...
They just change colour
Before they are another
Just as life might wish

They work so hard
To help their tree
Until it sets them free
To play with all the others
In a sea of autumn colour

Plastered to the ground
By the rain that's pelting down
And soaking everything around
Leaves rest near their tree
The ones that set them free

I may see them all again
If our journey never ends
It may pick us up and then
Cast us all back as friends

Fall Day

Today belongs to fall
Its leaves changing and all
As an aimless breeze wanders
I can glimpse sleeping branches
Through coloured cloaks that cling
To broadleaf summer trees
In the forest by my home

The weeping Birch
Over my ragged garden
Trembles in the Breeze
Yellows and greens flash
As its leaves rattle and spin
At the end of threadlike stems
Leaves strain to leave their tree
It doesn't need them anymore

Such beauty in life's struggle

A raven calls from across the field
Before flying straight overhead
I call to it through the miracle
Of its strong swooshing flight
It answers simply to my heart
Fluttering on the top of a Cedar

A black and blue Stellar Jay
Steals summer's silence
From the autumn day
Calling loudly
From an unseen perch
Behind coloured leaves
Beyond the frosty path

Not knowing I was there

Today

Today was one of those days
We all ate corn and potatoes
Today was one of those days
It rained cold all day long
Today was one of those days
I used headlights from dawn
Today was one of those days
That will always be ours

October's Wind

Cloaked under folds of cloud
A cleansing wind gusting loud
Is ripping fists of leaves away
As autumn branches swinging sway
Without a thought, without a care
Coloured leaves fly here and there

The River

The river flows
Waiting for her children
To return
The Smell of fish
In the wet forest
Is her richness
The wealth
Of life's passion

The Crow

The crow stops me in my work
As she flies beside the moon
Now beating in my chest
Her sound belongs
The moon belongs
As spider silk streams
Silver in September wind
Near tall cedar trees
Tied to heaven's door
With freedom

Autumn Dance

Spiders, mushrooms, fall leaves and fish
All practising courage inside the landscape
Arriving with the season's new confidence
Appearing bold before a Winter's white death
Now, it seems too late for anything to rise
And stand upright in this vulnerable world
They bravely waited till everything else hid
Till the warmth of last summer's party ended
When the flying insects withdrew from the air
And the flowers withered back into their soil
Until the sun warms the soil and calls their name
Next spring after winters' wetness has wearied
And the sun holds the land in its hand again