A Blessing

A blessing
Can only be heard
If a soul is listening
Through an open heart

A Gift

Ancient song
Sung by the soul
Sounds richer
When pain stands to listen
Glad to be heard
Joyful to be known
Frightened to be seen
Glistens when it’s given

Walking

Pleasantly walking
A visitor to this land
Finding it familiar
Trusting these footsteps
Not to lead me
Into someone else’s dream
But into my own sweet death
Of this or that sort
Until asked
To change this mind
Again, again and again
Until we are too tired
To remember
Why we came here
In the first place

Colored Flame

Colored flame of feelings
Bright emotions dance
As life vibrates
Touching my strings
Inviting joy to sing
Through every log
That burns

Life's reflection

Hundreds of birds rested
On the river today
I did not count them or name them
But there were geese and ducks
Floating on the river
Its cold and wet stillness
Looked warm and buoyant beneath them
Just one day after the winter storm left

I noticed the birds noticing me
Then everything let go of self
And everything let go of other
Whispers dissolved into silence
And the world was alive again

We drifted quietly in that place
Floating within winter’s stillness
I watched life tending its own seeds
They were waiting and growing everywhere
Enjoying the stillness of winter
Anticipating early colors of spring

Life found its own reflection
Among the birds, within the river
Through the forest, above the sky
Within my body and under my feet
Not through outward communication yet
But through the unconscious practice or release
Of scattered fragments of behaviors yet to be -
Of incomplete actions still unable to express their meaning
Simple truths that betray life’s longing
For its own grand adventure
And secrets that remain embedded behind
Time-locked veils of collective unconscious
A bud here - a tail wag there
A small fish splashing
A Vee of geese following
Life’s promising thought
Across an endless sky

Source

The river is full again today
It welcomes new water everyday
Water blessed at its source
As we are blessed with breath
Simple gifts beyond love
Truth and freedom and peace
Can scald if we consume them
Let them shimmer beyond wonder
Just to see them is enough
To lead us to the river

Winter’s River

Walking by the river
A flotilla of ducks
Claim the river
In the mist and flat light of Winter

One hundred ducks are here
Just for this moment
Scattered over the top
Of a hundred meters of river

Widgeon whistle warnings
As Chester and I approach
All of the other ducks
Must have stayed silent

I never noticed the others
Till I passed by the last of them
And heard the back-alley belly laugh
Of young mallards behind me

Their bright colors lost
In the misted raft of ducks
That floated darkly
On the silver river

Wet winter ground squishes
Under carefully placed feet
Radio warnings of heavy rain
Have not made me wet yet

As I stand here thankful to notice
The smooth perfect beauty
Of water droplets on branches
Just above me where I walk

Physical World

Air informs flight
Flocking, soaring, hovering
The energy is our choice
But the lessons belong to air

Water teaches swimming
On the surface or underwater
We need to find our breath
And we want to learn the lesson

Land inside gravity
Smiles as we begin to crawl
And then walk and then run
Jumping and sitting as we go

Your rules are so perfect
We can almost forget
Who we really are
Inside this body you rule

The desire we carry to move
From here to there
Beckons us on
Accepting our blindness