Words

                                                                                                                                  Google Image
Words change softly over time
And years become gentle waves
That rearrange gravel beaches
With every tide in every season
Again and again without any reason
It was in summer’s ocean of life
That we grabbed for a hold on self
To feel warm sun and cold rain
To know our body’s hunger
And learn which way to turn
To gratify our longing soul
When the last storm approached
We sought hard to let go again
Regaining wisdom from our pain

Mouse

                                                                      Google Image
The mouse realized
And then accepted
That it was a mouse
Loosing itself to the cat
Dazed and wounded
The mouse taught the cat
That indeed, it was a cat
Even though that cat
Loved the mouse so much
And had liked it forever
  But it still doubted itself
Until it killed the mouse
And lost a friend forever

Rocks

                                                              Google Image
The rocks in the path
All struggle through dirt
  Shedding fall leaves from
Their shoulders and backs
Breaking up dirt and earth
Smoothed by striding souls
Wearing boots or carrying bowls
Scuffing stone and flattening grass
Held in dirt’s ancient grasp

Warm in the sun
And bright in the rain
Emerging through seasons
Under mushrooms, near trains
Tracing the stars past clouds
And through trees
Loving their places
Beside the fish under bees

Stars

                                                                                     Google Image
Stars in the silent sky
Tall over fragrant trees
Dark with bright sparks
Dancing so perfectly
Circling so slowly
Drifting down
All knowing
Greet my silence
From so far away
Sharing their longing
Quenching our thirst
Through beauty
And silence

Filled

                                                                          Google image
We are not important
And when we can see that
We are God itself – no less
And no more either
Fully here and fully there
In everything and everywhere
Needing nothing going nowhere
Outside of time and outside of self
Inside of life, vibrating light
Here for everything to see
Here for anything to be
Unafraid of death
Unafraid of life
Here and Now
Finds me

The Sea

                                                                                     NOAA Photograph
The sea doesn’t know
Any language or material
That sunbathes on its back
Across the wide salt sea
The ocean hasn’t got a clue
But if it floats - junk can ride
Flotsam and jetsam too
The ocean never judges
While its waves splash truth
From distant lands and other people
All struggling to float
Just as we do too

Feeling

                                                                                           Google Image
Hurting from hunger
Hurting from shame
Hurting from taxes
Wincing in pain

Laughing with thunder
Laughing with names
Laughing with taxmen
Riding on trains

Angry at noises
Angry at loss
Angry at girlfriends
Sitting on moss

Frightened by rice wine
Frightened by beds
Frightened by salmon
Spawned out and dead

Joyful as children
Joyful as one
Joyful in friendship
Warm in the sun

All of our time here
Grows full like a tree
No one can know that
Until they are free

Evening

                                                                             Google Image
If you notice me
I will hold your life
And treat you well
And give you peace
To dream through
This darkness
And will wake you with
A kiss from the earth
When we both rise
To a new morning

Money

                                                                     Google Image
It isn’t all there is
But it is enough
To make a difference
Some of the time
In the way we feel
Toward ourselves
And all the others
That we walk with
Through private places
That never really ask us
What is most important
And what we need to follow
To keep from getting lost

Now

                                                                                         Google Image
Sitting here
Inviting
A poem
To visit
This page
That offers
Ten thousand
 Possibilities
  Each one
Is unique
Each moment 
Is colored
By the past
Each moment
Is present
In the now
Each moment
Is expecting
To move the future
One way or another
‘Now’ is always twinkling
Its bright string of lights
  Extending endlessly
Through the miracle
Of this special place

Garden Growing

                                                                                       Google Image
The garden is growing
Without regard at all
Rising full and sweet
Flowers clothed in color
Conferences and timelines
All set by sun and clouds
As life’s season awakens
With no time for me now
Only for insects that visit
It is time for me to sit
And enjoy the bright music
Of the flowers growing

Promised

                                                                                           Google Image
Among the things I promised
Under words and walking sticks
Were garden hoses, chesterfields
Beds and sheets and stuff
I sent a cotton comforter
And thoughts to bless your soul
All things real and true and kind
But in truth I longed for more

As love sank under view
The memories I knew
The good there was in you
And some that left me blue
All faded in the sun

Some things I never knew
Like how I loved to laugh
Were seeded in the grass
Instead I felt my heart break
As I itched to scratch the rash

Goodbye, goodbye, goodbye again
There is nothing left to say
I never chose to find these things
Or end with you this way

Dogs

                                                                                          Google Image
I don’t know that much about dogs
But they often seem like their owners
Happily living in the boxes they’re given
Food, exercise and freedom all prescribed
By others – masters or handlers who read
Details from paperwork in front of them
Reading is not for dogs
Dog's find joy rutting deeply into ritual
The sameness that soothes their minds
A dog's love, is full with no conditions
While our loneliness seldom softens
Dog's love is full with easy forgiveness
A gift we hope to learn from them
So alive in all the dogs that see us
And invite us into their lives
In exchange for gentle touching
In places far from fear and stress

Sometimes dogs wag masters
Making them precious children
Soft words and pats on heads
Prizes we never understand
Are cherished forever by pets
Even if we are dispassionate
Dogs always stand our friend
Unlike some others we know

Moon behind Cloud

                                                                                                                                                     Google Image

If I were a tree, birds would visit my branches

Walking through sunlight streamers today with my dog nearby
I looked up at the sky and sat down on a bench beside the big river
An unaimed gaze owned time and penetrated the air with ease above the trees
My eyes took me as far as they could go - far beyond the summer song of hidden birds
Nothing flew way up high across the sky to steal the freedom of my eye
My gaze wandered until it was swallowed by the infinite miracle of blue sky
It was a blue beyond blue that balloon wrapped the summer's daytime world
In front of that blue - not obscuring the view was a faint-frayed-pulled-apart cloud
Its ancient fabric of moisture changed like a wrinkled shirt in the sky-blue-breeze
Then I noticed the moon hiding but still clearly in view through a cloud’s moist breath
Shaved thin and white and pale the moon watched silent and unnoticed from its blue pond
I was taken away in that moment as my outward vision somehow gifted an inward knowing
As the sky and the moon and the clouds sang through me to summer birds in trees

Hot

                                                                  Google photograph
Tuesday is hot
Yesterday was
And tomorrow
Is expected to be
But hot is outside
While life is inside
A thickened shell
It seems to me

Friends are all
Outside of me
Even though
I long to feel
In my bones
In my blood
Our being is
Meant to be

One everyone
One everything
Knowing me
By life in others
Knowing others
By life in me
All emptiness
Now set free

A World

                                                                                  Google Image
A world loves to be noticed
It might live to notice itself
In a way that is hard to explain
I don't blame it for loving itself
We seek ways to notice ourselves
The world’s love lives in knowing
All living things that walk upon it
And great things far beyond view

But human dreams are everywhere
And they pass through so quickly
Sprite white clouds across blue sky
Fading from weightless memory
As their infinite shapes change
And fantasy plays with thought
Beneath each warmed breath
And inside our darkest worry
Or beyond any beliefs we hold
To feel worthy in this place

Circles

                                                                                     Google Image
Weeks and seasons circle
With or without our breath
Wishing for our turn on top
Wanting to understand it all
Waiting with the only truth
 Its the one we always knew
The one we want to place
Beyond our broken circles
In plain view for all to see
In plain view for us to be

Salmon

                                                                            Google Image
Silver salmon
Hides red blood
Never seeing itself
The way that we can
But always knowing
The only way home
Is truth in its heart
That shares with us
Life’s need for itself

Wild Flowers

                                                                     Haymeadows by Jill Colquhoun
 In a field full of flowers
Buttercups and clover
Anticipating glances they
Line paths we walk over

Warm yellow buttercups
And purple sweet clover
Are spread through the field
Hoping bees will come over

Flowers grow in meadows of hay
Bees’ pollen pouches are full today
Flowers of lupine, digitalis and phlox
All giving prizes to bees as I watch
Learning life needs us all such a lot

Magic

                                                                            Google Image

Magicians captivate
Like real magic can
It may happen to us
Truth is a difference
Magicians can fool
Distracting with skill
But life shows truth
Slower than illusions
A truth is never seen
Before its moment
It rings with clarity
For ever upon ever
Knowing one truth
We never expected

The Garden

                                                                    Google Image

The pleasant scent
And bold colors
Of beautiful flowers
In the garden I tend
Are gifts from the land

After sweat and love
That I gift to myself
While returning soil
To the promise of itself
I sit calm and alert
Seeing, smelling and feeling
The beauty that I touched
Now reaching out for me


Flowers 1

Flowers love the sky
Their colors greet my eye
As gravity whispers to ants
And bees that visit plants
Promising flowers forever
Unless a seed is severed

Rain onto Cedar

                                                        Google Image
Sitting in this chair
Aware of the world
Looking outside
A clear window
Here warm and dry
Beside the others
All in chairs waiting
For a doctor’s voice
To start the healing

 Meanwhile an old
Cedar tree outside
Gathers cold rain
Healing for ages
Silently familiar
In our world
But its power
Is tragically lost
To places beyond
The smell of cedar
The wetness of rain
The coolness of air
The beauty of breath
All lost to us now
Outside your gift

Cottonwood Tree

                                                                                     Google Image

Rain has settled the seeds
That floated from cottonwood trees
So soft in yesterday’s breeze

The seeds, it seems, were searching
For the whispered promise of spring
To unlock the life it can bring

The rain has settled some seeds
Where they landed beside the reeds
That live along the stream
Where grass grows tall as knees
And buffers protect the trees

I hope some seeds will try
To send roots below the rye
And leaves up to the sky

I will celebrate their scent
Sweet buds are heaven sent
To stand beside the stream
That flows inside my dream

My World

                                                                             Northern Vancouver Island
Floating on water
Or riding the wind
Running with humans
Or mining for tin

Each morning’s miracle
Greets me the same
With deeper acceptance
Than my given name

Where did I come from
And where will I go
How long will I be here
And what will I know

How long will this life last
What purpose are dreams
What draws me to rivers
And ties me to streams

I am here and I love it
I am anxious with heart
But surrendering will
Is a very fine art

Sun glints off glass
From a far away boat
Riding the waves
Over seabed it floats

To know is a gift
That all of us learn
But feelings of oneness
Are elusive to earn

All of these questions
Can answer themselves
As life goes on living
Inside its own shell

The truth of our being
Our soul and our self
Is no more important
Than being yourself'

The World

                                                                               Google Image

Woven world always belongs
Without a thought or a need
Respectfully and with honour
It nets memories from the past
Its fishing boats float upon time
Deep water under oars of now
Fashions our future with twists
Of intention and strained vision
Sun shines through morning's mist

Shadow

                                                                                        Chris Petty Image
Did you ever follow
A darkened shadow?
Shadows of thoughts
Can fill empty spaces
And find all the places
That the sun can’t see
And truth may not be

So you follow the sun
And let the shade run
To prevent getting lost
From sun's silver cloth
Don't follow a shadow

Change

                                                                     Google Image
Engines of change
Our minds at work
Seeking a stillness
But living on dirt
Leaving our truth
To gather fine dust
Back at the station
Where engines rust

Clouds

                                                                                                Google Image
Motionless clouds float silent
Changing shapes when we look away
Hiding their form from others
They widen our eyes as we sway
Inviting alligators and elephants to enter
And dance like smoke through our minds
If we look away we can lose them
Soft white-grey in front of blue sky
Moisture to rain from their bellies
In the middle of very-high sky
Changing form with freedom
While they float across the sky
Where did those clouds ever come from?
And why do you think they passed by

Caspian Terns

                                                                                 Google Image
Caspian Terns
Are nesting up the Fraser this year
I have never seen them here before
They look a bit like gulls at a distance
But their voice is full of rasp and gravel
Replacing the hungry sour song of gulls
And they fly alone fast and hard
I wonder if they can soar in quiet air
Such long thin wings and a small tail
They often fly at the same time
But I have never seen them in flocks
With their black bicycle helmets
And heavy red colored beaks
They seem to holler threats
As they pass by each other
Traveling up and down the river
From wetlands to fishing grounds

The Sun

                                                                                       Google Image
Sun and moon are happy
Wild rose connected with Spring
Thorny Rosa rugosa is leafing
And her buds beginning to break
They show a tight lipstick red seam
Her flowers are flawless flat petals
Unfolding pink trembles toward sun
Inside each flowered pink blossom
Is golden or bright yellow ring
 It floats on the breeze of a center
Crowns waiting for wild bees to come


After the bees leave each flower
Roses smell sweet and grow more
Letting all of their pink petals fade
I think some pink left the flower
To rise as invisible blessings
Fragrantly offered to the sun

Soft Rain

                                                                       Wells Grey Park
Soft rain following sun
Is just what we needed
To bring sense into life
Like finding a balance
In the sleep of our heart
It feels like the answer
To our deepest longing
It makes the new leaves
Greener and larger and
In an unexplained way
Happier in this moment
Its own miracle of life

This Day

                                                                         Lighthouse Park B.C.
Days are dotted with moments
Dangerous ones for the careless
Gifts of blessing for the thank-full
Magic ones that find the loving
All bring life a chance for growth 

Life is a sweet and bright miracle
That can dissolve into our awareness
All of us carry the courage to feel it
All will acknowledge it sooner or later
To be deeper than any reflected image

Hummingbird and Eagle

High and low or near and far
Without reference they are fully lost
Hummingbird and Eagle approach
And I walk to draw them
Nearer to each other
The hummingbird perched
Still on the top of its low tree
The Bald Eagle soaring
Piercing spring blue sky
High above its ancient nest
They approach each other
Me pretending to be oblivious
But manipulating time and space
As my feet and eyes play
With these two opposites
Then they collide – visually
Never noticing each other
Or what I saw by circling my head
Drawing them near and forcing them far
Amazed because they were so
Similar in perceived size
Yet so different in nature
Both of them knowing
I was there
But neither aware
Of the other

Life

                                                                             Google image
Sometimes I wonder if God is Life
Nothing more and nothing less
Simply life and all the longing it holds
I could understand that or at least accept it
But maybe - God is just unknowable
You know - Beyond the reach of reason
Resting beyond all the knowledge we hold
Maybe God is a force like gravity
That draws us toward truth, love and loyalty
By simply feeling good – God invites us
Into life’s arms and into a shared heart
While we secretly wait for what we need
To land easy in our lap and firm in our heart
Without fading our awareness
Or our name or our perceived self
Replacing God with our own stance
To shower omnipotence and love
On a lonely world about our feet
Whose dream of power is this, anyway?
Life is already a winning lottery ticket
So why do we need to know
Why it is that our ticket was drawn
When everyone else's was too. . .
Just do the best you can do
And God will live in your smile

Slate Grey Cloud

                                                                                Google Image
A dark slate grey cloud
Rings round the horizon
Looking up I still see blue
Soft sky and summer cotton
Warming to find me quiet
In the middle of chaos
Where hail can’t reach
And I can remember . .
Many good things I did
But memories fade away
As the dark ring closes in
And I seek a shelter

Morning

                                                                          Google Image
This morning I am here
Changing and enjoying
This one creation

The lessons I need in life
To dress within this place
All hang from hallway hooks
That need me to find them
Welcoming them one-by-one

Stillness

                                                                                                          Google Image
Perfect Stillness and constant movement
Two different views of a spinning coin
Through each beautiful and perfect twist
The coin spins out truth for our vision
And sings with beauty through its sound

Draped in the magic of a gentle wobble
Its flashing face smiles through fuzzy blur
Standing still in contemplation
Or laughing inside waves and streams

This knobby fingered fist of wind
Seldom shows us through its veil
Where sun and fortune know the truth

Of what is there for all to see

The Sea

                                                                                                      Google Image

The Sea holds enough salt near its soul
To tear in gratefulness and tear in sorrow
It sends its waves that track forever home
Until they find their own birth beach
Loving memories of flickering light
Ebb in souls that won’t look back
After its tide has turned to flood

People hiding, people ashamed
Pile the waste of sin into tide's arms
Blood and bone wrapped in dear cape
Herring eggs spoiled on slippery kelp
Urchins colored and black with stench
Hedge trimmings that tidied a yard
Dog poop in bags thrown to waves

Human visits toward dark's own solitude
At beaches when we all know better
Can only ever scald the sea with sorrow
While we feel the pain of crime in our gut
Sins forgotten by waves that wash them

Stopping, I watch the sun's last moments
Blessing the sea with rich evening colors
Seeking out memories to live in forever

Earth Day (4,22,2012)

Earth day is important
It is important to us all
Too bad it is only one day
A birthday to reminds us
How precious this place is
And how well it serves us
Yet we take it for granted
Most days we walk on it
Most meals we eat on it
The breaths we breathe
Earth is mother to us all
Nature often claims us
But life delivered us here
A seed in our own shell
That needs to break apart
For us to be the life we are

A Hug

                                                                                            Google Image

If I could then I would
Give you what you want
But I am bad at guessing
Even worse at reading minds
My truth is that I love you
As I listen to my heart
And stand with you in stillness
Knowing smiles that understand
That is all I want from heaven
Living here upon this land

Spring Celebration

                                                                           National Geographic Image
Cottonwood, Cherry and Alder
Silent beside a grey clay path
Awaken to the beautiful songs
Spring birds in changing worlds

Leafing trees celebrate Spring
Unwrapping sticky scented buds
Black branches fuzzing with life
Unfurling silk as light-green leaves

Greening ground littered by trees
Casting bud coats, catkins and cones
To chase away the winter winds
Holding Spring's magic moon

New leaves have never known
That sun burns beyond blue sky
Yet, their partnership will work
Together they will grow a tree

By walking across winter's land
Breaking through its lonely crust
We have found our way to Spring
Warm sun, leaves, sweet melodies

Bald Eagle

                                                                                 Flickr Image

I looked up and saw a hummingbird
The very same bird I know so well
Perched atop an unripe alder
On a bank above the river
Rooted firm at the edge of spring
Now, bursting bark and budding
Before leafless trees nearby
It is the first time I noticed
Anna perched on that tree top
Her iridescence usually tops a dogwood
She waited all through winter watching
Me and my dog walk by every day
Anna has been patient but good
After passing by today I looked back
At the tree for the pointy-beaked bird
But I could not see him in front of the sun
Yet, high above the tree soared an eagle
Strong and still but it was moving so fast
It seemed quiet and motionless up high
Its flight seemed tireless as a dream
Though we hardly ever look for it

Arrived

                                                                                            Google Image

I notice how geese paddle

Floating among the others

On the quiet flooded river

Their calls unmistakable

Loud and disharmonious

Yet confident and proud

Then beautiful and simple

Filling the world with life

Drawing souls from dreams

And other worlds beyond

Winged banjos flying low

Across the waking river

Geese

                                                     Google Photograph
The geese are arriving
They know not why they come
But they call in celebration anyway
Because it is where they need to be
The snow is leaving not coming
The grass is growing not browning
Our hearts are beating not still
Until change calls us away

Dreams

                                                                   Google Image

 Last night’s dreams seemed real
I felt filled with Love and good will
Then something urged me to walk
Without thinking one single thought
We encountered each other last night
In that dream that somehow felt right
Like a shadow that reaches soft light
Bringing loving and healing to sight

The details from last night’s dream
Were drawn away by sleep's stream
But it left us with gifts both to try
Following life’s tide line till dry

Generous Children

Generous children
Help us know ourselves
Help us to see others
From inside the Love
Where we all started
So we followed them
Seeking their being
Inside happy lessons
Caring for their pets
Loving their parents
Living in our family
Folding into its truth
Unfolding for others
Changing within life
In ways we can’t see
Until we stand alone
Together again

Understanding

 Medicine Man - Google image

 

I listened to sounds
And bought a new book
But forsaking thought
Is all that it took

To feel life’s river
Flowing along
It never goes dry
Like a boiling song

It flows through life
Breathing each breath
Just one at a time
So it follows the rest

And we change like the sand
In this brightly colored land

Hope

                                                                                             Google Image
Hope sustains me
It plays me again
Drawing a dream
Inside of my mind

Hope keeps moving
Toward a new day
In a world that never
Existed that way

Notice the Dreams

 They're right or wrong
It is always up to us
To learn its full song
And sing the words
Dreamed for so long

Crystals

                                                                                          Google Image
I wonder
If the earth itself is
A colorful dream of life
Wobbling while it is spinning
For just as long as it should take
To know one thing and no more
And then to imagine a new body
With a mind to hold up our soul
Between two upraised fingers
Tilting the sun and the stars
Like crystals that change
In every light we find

Divine Wind

                                                                      NOAA photograph
A divine wind
Plays through us
Tall and unafraid
Greeting us long
Before we arrived
Loving us deeper
Than we have
Ever loved ourselves
The sinew of its truth
Long and strong and real
Shivers the pond
Where we die
Drawing life’s circle
As we long deeply
To feel water's truth
Move through us
Becoming love

Reflection

                                                                                     Amazon Basin, 2007 
It's the first day of a new month
And well past my middle of life
I am not quite clear on who I am
It remains something I can’t see
(Unless I can  look away from it)
Is it what the blind spot knows?

We live more in the world
Of intuition than of reflection
Intuition is warmed with life
And it is three-dimensional.
Reflections are dead-cold
And are two dimensional

Although, I can feel who I am
I never get to see who I am
And intuition works in the dark
While reflections hide in silence