Listening to Waves

I felt you lift my boat
Green and solid ocean wave
Moving so fast and strong
Silent on your track

I watched you find your shore
And at your turn
Stand to call your truth
I ran with you down the beach – listening

Sometimes you just whispered
But sometimes
You seemed to shout
Pounding your message into the surf

I never understood you clearly
But you always touched me deeply

Your voice carried over the sand bars
And tumbled with the salty wind
Beyond the beach grass into the forest
Where your song would softly rest

High up on bent branches
In the summer smell of old cedar trees
You would sleep with invisible silence
Until the raven would visit your branch

I watched the raven tilt his head
And listen carefully to your secret
Then with it fly away calling
The essence of your truth

I never understood him clearly
But he always touched me deeply

I wondered - Did you find your peace
On the beach, or in the forest
Or when raven learned your message
And called it out for the others to know

Now, when I watch your brothers find their shore
And I smell the forest where they rest
And as I hear the raven call your truth
I find your joy in my own heart's beat