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

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