Eagle

An Eagle circles
I know it well
Six years
It has lived here
In the trees
On its nest
With its mate
With its young
Calling to us
From its maker
Letting us know
There’s nothing personal
In its flight or perching
In its fishing or calling
It is just an eagle
Half as dangerous
As we can be
Still, it reminds me
I am mortal
Just unnoticed
On this precious land

Raining

Raining
Still raining
Always raining
Walking
In the grace
Of gentle rain
Unafraid
To find
Myself
Forever

Mirror

The light seems flat today
The river full and silent
A lone duck calls out
The urgency of fresh loss
In the tone of its voice
Deeply alone without reason
Lost to the river in this season
Unseen to all except the current
That tries to carry its soul into safety

I don’t know
What is missed
Or even what is lost
But this feeling
That is so very deep
Can never be hidden
From the world again
The hollow echo of joy
Inside of my heart

When wind returns
It will take this
Precious shadow
Plucked from deep
Within the river
Away with it again
But in this moment
It sings to me

Ancient Dance

/\
Geese
Fly in a Vee
Often shifting places
While the Vee remains true
In an unmeasured sky of knowing
A divining wedge cleaved from here and
Aimed for there -  A perfect ancient memory
That lives outside of time but can define a season
The season of coming                                                  
And the season of going                                                      
Both smooth turning points                                                          
 Attaching to either one always invites the wolf
And freezing or starving can find you only if chosen
Old age comes soon enough breathing gentle forgiveness

Snowflake

Three thousand
Three million
Three billion
Ice dancers twirling
Grace floating in air
Each crystal unique
Beauty in free fall
One died on my tongue
One bounced off my eye
  A beautiful sight
Early morning light
Snowflakes are sliding
Sideways out of air
Kissing black water
Embracing the river
  Rushing warm greetings
Each frozen spark
Shedding uniqueness
Each crystal thought
Dreamed in the air
Before it returned home
  To join Grandfather River
In the irresistible
Journey of joy
Through sameness
And change

Winter Ducks

Winter ducks float by
Across a rippled grey sky
Below the dike I walk on
Just beyond the narrow marsh
That lives along the river’s margin
This secret place where marsh hides
Her collection of naked forest trees
Logs that lay still and rot among reeds
Ducks float close by on top of the rippled sky
While the tide changes direction - but not her heart
Humming an irresistable song to delight the moon's pull
][
Mallard, pintail, widgeon
All together single-file
A winter parade
Silent and motionless
Float upstream with meaning
Along the spiky edge of rushes
That defines the river’s margin
I have always loved these birds
That stay here for the winter
They just arrived yesterday
And somehow I am happy
To see them again

Winter Rain

Sometimes rain shrinks us
Its impersonal manner
Draws cold shoulders up
And pulls a wet head down
As sore knees stiffen
And numb feet follow
A dog that doesn’t mind
My sight falls on pebbles

Sometimes we notice
We are the only ones out
And the rain invites me
And my body to play
My shoulders warm as they drop
My head feels at home when it’s wet
And the dog follows me
While I feel the rain fall

Winter Light

Brilliant bright light
in blades that stab
between leafless branches
on boulevard trees
stealing sight from my eyes
whenever it finds them.
I try to keep my eyes open
behind this windshield
despite the burning light
but I need to fill in the blanks
with a memory of this place
carried from past shadows.

Forest Floor

What a wonder it is to walk
Along a path that leads us
So easily through this wet fall forest
All the leaves have fallen
A brown and yellow carpet
Hides the gravel trail
From our searching seeking eyes
But not at all from 3 dog noses
The forest feels quiet now
Nearly all the leaves are down
Their summer songs drowned and still
But never forgotten it seems
I think of salmon today
Like the leaves they lay down their bodies
To nourish the land through winter’s sleep
And emerge anew next spring

Love

I watched three deer move across the land behind the house. They were grazing on blades of grass that had emerged through the moss that covered the rock face. The deer seemed busy but peaceful and they remained for thirty minutes or so unafraid of me and unafraid of the dog I was with - Chester.

Let me be
A blade of grass
On the hill
Above my home
Where the deer
Wander through
Grazing
I would happily
Offer myself to them
And so move freely
In their body
As their body
Across this land
That is loved

Wholehearted

Wholehearted is a flame
that carries us to places
we never could imagine.
Places that belong to themselves
yet welcome
new conversations
between a deeper part
of the universe
and a deeper part
of ourselves.
A part that was born
through past footsteps.
From the earth that stuck to our feet
and the sky that tousled our hair.

Morning Puddle

This morning at the Maritime museum before the sun came up I stepped out of my car into a pretty large puddle. I watched Chester drinking from the puddle when I let him out of the car. I noticed from where I stood that he was drinking up the reflection of a fairly expensive penthouse in the west end of Vancouver... and then three groups of three geese flew overhead as the morning began to emerge.

Shallow in a fall puddle
After the rain has fallen
Before the water soaks in
The sun’s back turned
Floods early morning
With darkness from deep water
Inviting me to watch
The joy of a sun’s welcome
Smiling rose reflected back
From an instant beyond my horizon
As city lights still shimmered
Paper thin on top of ponded rain
Three flights of geese
Return me to the morning world

Visitor

I am a visitor
I was welcomed here so warmly
When the door was first opened to me
This is the air we breathe
This is the water and food we take
It is fuel to help our body run
You have a mind and a body
To serve you in this practical place
All other things you have brought with you
And it is up to you to find out how you carried them
Love is a lost king in this place
Pain is a signpost of learning
Sadness is proof of our need to be here
While Joy is a hat the true captain wears
And empty loss belongs to our mind
When we rely on it to find our way
So much time has passed
That I walk here now
As if there were no other place
And yet I strive harder than ever
To remember just how
I was first greeted here
And where I travelled from
So that I can greet a morning in the same way
All I really know
Is that it rained beautifully
Long before I got here
And it will rain beautifully
Long after I leave