Flying

                                                                Google Image

I care so very deeply
But there’s nothing I can do
Except for hoping silently
And stemming old stale thoughts
As I follow feelings
That are threaded through my past
While that child leaps to fly
Across a multicolored sky
That still waits for me to try

Winter Wind

                                                                         Google Image

I always notice the wind
And today it brushes hard
Against all surfaces it finds
No birds are flying
They are hiding in the forest
Frightened by wind music
It overshadows their song

Needled trees are blushing
The light is bleached harsh
Brightened by cold wind
The roads glistens gleams
Every surface glints stark
The ocean bay shimmers
3 Oystercatchers float
Below unchecked wind

Chimes ring tin to wind
Cedars pass windy secrets
Down a wide forest path
Wind’s round cheeked breath
Is felt everywhere but is heard
Best by stars stamped in tin
That live beside our front door

Shiny tubes shaded behind our house
Praise wind in pure twinkling voices
Warning that the wind seeks all paths
Hollow doors slam in imagined anger
Stopping wind but frightening the dog
Who heads into the forest to hide
From the wind with the birds

I am fine with the wind
It pushes trees away from the house
But searches for me inside every room
While green grass grows through moss
Under the wind above spring’s flowers
Sleeping safely inside dreams
For a future that waits for them

A Tree

                                                     National Geographic photograph
A tree is part of me
As I watch how it grows
From the earth into the sky
From its roots to its leaves
It struggles at anything else
So it comforts me to know
That the tree is a part of me
Like the sun and the moon
We breathe in the same air
So differently and wisely
As we share this world
We love each other
Knowing only
We are not alone

Fireworks

                                                                                                Google Images
I walked today a little way
Along the river and over the hill
Beside my dog through morning fog
We had 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 til the evening show

If the rain should 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 must 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 so the sky is lit
The people oooh and the people aaah
Explosions rip as they point their mits
The winter’s cold and the winter’s dark
But I lit it up with a single spark

Borrowed

                                                                                           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
They are made from the 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

                                                                                  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

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

                                                                           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

                                                                              Sproat lake in Winter
Lost inside a moment
Chester shook water off
Wet and still dripping
In a place we walked
So many times before
But it seems 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
Everywhere from here to there
But I know better than that
Things are always changing
As I am always drawn away
From the true course I follow

Mist

                                                                                       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

                                                                                              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

                                                        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 decided to stay and play in a winter freeze
Sensing my presence you fluttered your wings to see
Black bark was 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 play invisible magicians
As the Sun strains closer and stays longer to watch
For just as long as leaves last and bees are fooled
Hummingbird, your spring arrives surrounding you
The size of a ping pong ball and the weight of a nickel
But your seed of life is as grand as any seal in any sea
Other birds follow the changing river to find some place
A place that I can never remember but I will always know


So, like you, somehow I knew spring would come
Now, it is vibrating to end the cold nights
As in life, it is 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 far beyond anything I could ever imagine
It works magic, offering everything and twice more
So, in some way like you, Anna, I must fly too

Winter Geese

                                                                                            Google Image

Snow geese fly across the sky
The people smile a winter sigh
Massive V’s are views that please
As white geese fly above bare trees
Spring is straight in all directions
The sky is open wide for life
Leaving tools of life behind
Geese fly for spring fully blind
Ahead of dreams that follow them
Enriched by V’s and feathered friends

Learning

                                                                                            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

                                                                                         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

                                                                                        Google image

Here and there is 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 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 some snow now
So winter can breathe easy
As I follow lengthening days
That will slowly defeat winter
And Lead through spring to summer
When heat will rule each day

Winter Light

                                                                                               Google Image

It seems awfully 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 a bold promise to be

Leaves living beneath sleep
Bold dreams on a winter day
But each of us in our own way
Knows that the world provides
Everything we will ever need

Body and Mind

                                                                    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

                                                                                           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

                                                                                       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

                                                                             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

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

January

                                                                                             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

                                                                                                 Google Image
December darkness
Family stirs bright
In shortening days
The night is dark
As clouds cast rain
And find us hiding
In places we know
But never forget
Till June pulls us
Outside ourselves
Cast into summer
Serving the world
With endless joy
Or scalded feelings
Over wet clay roots
Of life then death
Today then again
Feel the difference
  Of quietly taking
Or boldly living
In the present
That we wait for
  Or the present
We fold into

Presence

                                                                                         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

                                                                        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

                                                                                                Google image
Lavender and mustard
Sweet sleeping fragrance
Slender on a breathing breast
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

                                                                                                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

That lead away 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

Flash through the present

Bright like shooting stars

To rest still as a mountain
In our timeless past

Lost Summer

                                                                                                Flickr image

Winter has settled
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

                                                                                                        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

                                                                     Google Image


The north-east wind blows steady-hard
The sky is blue and dry
As colored leaves are plucked from trees
a few just won't comply

They move as fast as animals
That rush as if a herd
Or birds that flock 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 plucked by autumn's hand

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

Little Fish

                                                                                 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

                                                                                                       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

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

                                                                          Google image

Frightened

                                                                                  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

                                                                                               Google image
Grateful is a view
Coloring 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
Hiding night behind its light
Showing all things in color
Including us in plain view
Of life’s miracle

Ferry Ride

                                                                                                         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

                                                                                                       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

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

                                                                                                            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

                                                                                                          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 just what pink can mean

Barefoot

                                                                                                          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

                                                                                                        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

                                                                           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

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

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

 

                                                                       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

                                                                                                         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

                                                                                                 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

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

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

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