May

 The flowers of May wash clouds away

Things

The things we bought
And things we brought
The things that stand through time
Are objects that all catch our eye
And things we won't give back
So we move them here
And we move them there
We take them everywhere
All that stuff
That coloured fluff
Can ache our muscled back
When things we own
Make us strain and groan
Simplify to get back on track

Spring Evening

Sit by the river near my office tonight
The tide is low and the world is calm
Still everything is moving and changing
The water is calm the sand looks smooth
Sun shines bright across a silent world
The rich golden light bounces blindly
Around a hungry Heron stalking her prey
There is no shadow just her reflection
And it stands between me and the bird
No matter where I go or what the bird does
The reflection is perfect without a blemish
And the heron stalks without stirring a ripple
Until a male Heron flies high over her head
Crossing the river and drawing her attention
I felt her wings lift her feet from the water
She followed her life leaving fish to swim

Birdsong

A birdsong warms the sun
It lightens food for flight
And pleases a place in me
Like the flat red fingers
Of reawakened maple leaves
Playing in the noon-day sun
Green and dark red on top
Softening the light’s glow
Pleasing yellow bees below
As they fly from their hive
Seeking nectar in flowers
The undigested distraction
In eternity's muscled crop
Birdsong sings to my heart

Tree Frogs

Folded into the silence of my country home
It is always very easy to find comfort there
The night air is misty clean and man is silent
Cloud covered land at night lets in no light
Departing sun leaves a mossy rich darkness
That offers a new dimension for our hearing
Sounds change each moment of every season

Warming the evening blackness by my house
I listened to three tree frogs calling last night
Loud and distinct in the springtime darkness
Voices calling in front of a million other songs
All composed near the pond down the road
A distant din of frogs like a mountain range
Formed a nonstop horizon of sound at night
The perfect background for the three voices
I could hear calling in my yard near my chair
Where I sat in a sound that stayed beautiful

April

...'From April showers spring May flowers'...

Perfection

Never-ending the task
Of seeking perfection
Inside each crumpled start
That waits in the waste
Crushed by living hands
Enslaved by cultured minds
Seeking to find perfection
Filling the bin with beauty
Over and over again
Hidden in paper balls
Tossed onto silent waste
Each wishing for more lines
To grace their empty space
The countless bold starts
At the top of each page
Can teach a writer
That hari-kari is real
Inside a crumpled ball
Tossed into the pile
While failure only visits
If our stories die through
Bad reading or soft writing
Or implausible situations
All needing to be understood
And begging to be forgiven
Before a story can unfold
Logically and sensibly
In its own perfect way

Spring clouds

Clarity above a shifting cloud of thought
Where sun is bright and its ray’s are warm
All of heaven seems clear from way up here
My human friends are lost below that grey cloud
I wonder if I am confused without my feelings
They guided me toward my one real star of truth
Feelings I breathed in and felt burning inside me
Feelings that shook me and woke me with wonder
Strong feelings that I was afraid of and in love with
Big chisels that chipped away large pieces of shell
A false shell that I couldn’t see, that surrounded me
Kindness and time were more subtle tools of change
And they found me just like they found you, and you
Waiting to be struck down by the fear that seems real
Death is certain and natural. It is the biggest chisel
Rooted deep at the most distant point in our landscape
Waiting in our future but born long before our past
Death seems to grow bigger as we approach closer
And as it feeds on the ground that we stand on
And breathes out its clouds to tilt our heavens
Yet we go through big changes and small changes
All the changes that we never saw waiting for us
And all the changes that could have ignored us
But would never allow us to pass by - untouched
Like dry sand sleeps under sunshine. We imagine
Change as natural for others but not for us

We are so lucky in those moments when the clouds part
And the heavens are revealed to our soul’s breathing body
We are lucky in those moments when we know everything
Even though we find no real power in the information
It is simply the truth without an appetite for anything
It is simply the way that it is and it can be no other way

Spring Wind

The world is windy again
Why is it that I notice the wind?
When I seldom notice the still air
The air is always surrounding me
Sometimes it is moving
And sometimes it lays still
It has always been fresh enough
To honour my sweet breath
And each bird I watch fly
While I sense us all living
Inside the same breeze

Your Dog

Loyal as a shadow
And scary as the night
A bright white smile
And two eyes bright
Black dog is a friend
Wagging tail not there
Running to the water's edge
And jumping in the air

How did Bear convince you
To throw a rock through air
So he could bark and dig it out
And drag it back to land
Splashing it from certain death
Out on the shallow fan

Hidden under turbid water
Overlying the sand
The rock stayed out of sight
And hidden from us all
Sitting on that log
Like a floating tennis ball

Chester

Not easy, not pleasant
These tasks that rest at hand
Letting a dog go peacefully
Helping children understand

Death is just as real as life
Like ripples in the land
They change with every tide that flows
Sculpting lines across the sand
They change with every season
As they reach out for the moon
And change in every nighttime
That a star fits in a spoon

I am alive and will survive
Life and love and loss
I hope to meet another friend
Just like the one I lost

Cycles

Cycles, like circles
Can chase their own tail
Snakes without ladders
And bread without ale

Waiting for springtime
We’re tired of the snow
And searching to find
New flowers to grow

In our gardens of soil
Our sweat and our toil
Each color’s divine
In moments that rhyme

The flowers will grow
Whether here or not
But old planted rows
Loves compost that rots

Each color is bright
When a plant matures
If the soil stays black
Then the cycle recurs

Transitions

Transitions are a time of change
Not time to change the world
Instead a time to change ourselves
Inside this changing world
A change can be quite gentle
But sometimes quite abrupt

We all mature so gradually
We hardly see the change
Somewhat like a glacier flows
As it strains toward low terrain
We’re often blind to see that place
Yet know our path leads there

But change can take us rapidly
If life gives us a ride
Yes,change can take us quickly
As fast as we blink our eye
Like Dragonflies that live below
And change to suddenly fly
Their life begins below the boat
And ends up in the sky

Walking

Smooth or labored with pain
It moves us from here to there
On a Mission or a just a Whim
We move with measured purpose
To meet with certain satisfaction
Just by being there and not here
And accomplishing whatever it is
That we meant to do in going there
All of this so that we can return
To the place that we made our plans
Whether they are the same or changed
Larger or smaller than they seemed
When we first conceived them

Embrace

Everything lives in an embrace
The ocean embraces the shore
The shore embraces the ocean
Humans walk along the land
Embracing gravity with their feet
Embracing the far away world
With two tender eyes that see
A heart that beats has everything
Understanding all it needs to know
I cannot look at anything without
Sensing an embrace of tender welcome

Thread

Life is a strong thread
That runs through
Every living thing
Waking or sleeping
It shadows across our brow
Knowing something
We will never understand
Even though we spend
Much of our life trying

Rocks

Rocks are hard
And they can last a long time
Patience and resolve
Maybe that is what they practice
As we admire them
And we name them
To keep their power for ourselves
And in that moment
We must state clearly and simply
Time is irrelevant

Beautiful Moment

At the end of every day
There is a magic moment
That runs across the sky
Blacking out man’s land
Beauty before stars arrive
Holding onto its true value
Given freely to those who wait
To watch each sky unfold
Into orange or pink or red
So different from the night
So different from the day
Living in between them
Reminding each of us
That life can be exciting
Its beauty often sandwiched
Between long stretches
Of busy then empty living

Smooth Stone

Noticing a small smooth Stone
I pick it up and inspect it
Then put it safely with others
Deep into my own pants pocket
Clean and smooth I feel them
Warming under my finger tips
As I walk along this path I love
This trail that follows the river
And wakes my heart with feeling
Whenever I forget myself along it
Sometimes, it offers me a stone
But only if I am ready to see it
As if the stone was never there
Before the day that I found it
Yet, as if it has waited forever
For me to notice its Smooth form
Then I stop and bend to pick it up
And carry it to a new home for now
Ancient, smooth, clean and bright
It smiles with warmth as we walk
Along the timeless river that flows
Smoothing every stone that it touches
With its gentle abrasion of wisdom
An endless truth changing forever

Movement

Movement is a miracle
In a life that is sublime
It takes us to the healer
Or to buy organic limes

Movement is a miracle
Trees can’t understand
Wind blows into autumn
Moving leaves across the land

Wintertime for plants
Is a time for sleep or rest
Birds that fly seem restless
Just before they leave their nest

When I think of movement
I see all my furry friends
The warmer that their coats are
The less they need to spend

Movement is a miracle
That runs from here to there
The only thing that differs
Is the speed at which we scare

Barred Owl

Perched on a branch
Near the edge of the forest
Close to my open door
In the blackness of the night
Owl practices its hollow call
Ruling the world of darkness
With such confident mastery
My snoring brought the bird
Now its eerie call wakes me
And sends me into silence
Wishing to know the night
Wanting to watch the owl call
Before the sun takes the night

The Present

So many days have passed since I was a child
When I looked in a mirror to search for my future
Would I be bald or grey? Would I be strong or weak?
It really doesn’t matter to me at all any more
For the future has day by day become the present
And here I am now - just the way I am
But this moment will pass away with time
And with that passing I will stand upon new territory
And shoulder everything I value in that moment

The things that I value are fewer and fewer with time
The things I now value rest among friends and family

If

If I were a tree; birds would visit me
If I were the sea; fish would swim through me
If I were a tea; thirsty people would drink me
If I were a bee I would buzz for honey not money
If I were a mountain I could make rain fountains
Neither a tree, nor the sea, nor some tea, or a bee
Could ever pay the fee to live in place of me

Water

Water is perfect
That is all that it is
Blue in a clear sky
Grey in a cloud
Clear in a glass
And white if it is cold

We need it to live
We need it to swim
We need it to drink
Or to ski on a whim

Winter Moment

This day could be overlooked
It could be shouldered aside
Without even thinking about it
If you weren’t moving around
Watching for spring’s surprise
But the day held its own beauty
In clouds and moisture and sun
All playing across small fields

I drove an hour through change
From clear vantages to dense fog
The world’s vignettes shook me
I felt so open and then so closed
From high up I could see forever
White cotton batting ropes of cloud
Like braided snakes across near islands
Joined white crusts of thick fog
All bellied onto dark foghorn seas

The wet and silver-squinting road
Descended darkly into a belly of cloud
Changing gradually into a dull ribbon
As cloud smudged the floating sun quiet
Hiding half of its light in the mist
Cloud moisture clung to the cool road
Waiting to embrace a warmer season
Then the road led into the light again

The road ran again from blinding silver
To wet-rubber-black when it descended
Toward the still and heavy salt ocean
Across the beach of clean wet stones
Crackled by endless fingers of waves
Each bright stone inspected and placed
Just where it needs to be right now

Thank you to the sea and the sun
For their endless joy in change
As clouds cloak me from the sun
Inside their miracles of moisture
Breaking open the moment's beauty

Changing

The world is said to be changing
Of course everything is changing
Life arrives new in every moment
The past dies as the present arrives
And future's basket is full of our hopes
Sometimes we withdraw a good dream
Sometimes we take what is left there
It doesn’t matter because what comes
Is always new to us inviting us to dance
Inside the music of our only universe
And a life we share with all other life
In that heated moment when we are alive
In that moment when all directions are real
And our breath is as important to the land
As the wind that pulls the colored leaves
From autumn trees and then recycles them
Returning them to a place that imagined them
All growing usefully on bare branches

Miracle

The rain seems the same
As yesterday and before
But every drop is different
Did you notice the drops?

Rain can only exist
Because it happens
If it never happened
It never imagined itself

What is real is often lost
Inside a precious miracle
That forgets everything
Before we even arrive

Science and familiarity
Can dissolve the wonders
That greet our children
When we all first arrive

And after every miracle
Is named and explained
Our dreams fade into Art
In the light of ‘Artificial’

Try hard to remember:
That dreams brought us here
So embrace every miracle
With your own warm heart
Let science soothe your mind

Wonder

The rain is the same again
As it was yesterday and before that
But the drops are different
Did you notice the drops are different?
Rain can only exist
Because it happens on this earth
If it never happened
We would likely never imagine it
Just like so many other little things
Here in this precious miracle
Where we don't remember anything
Before we learn science
And use it to dissolve the wonder
That greets children
When we all first arrive
Before we fear the miracles
We name them and explain them
And our dreams become Art
In the false light of ‘Artificial’
Yet our dreams brought us here
So embrace miracles with your heart
Let science soothe your mind

Depression

Once and maybe again
An empty lonely train
Lies us down the same
Defeated by the rain

Prisoner of our mind
No easy way to find
If truth speaks in rhyme
Differently each time

Silence writes its name
To hide us from the pain
And find invisible gain
No safety lies in fame

Anger's shimmering fear
Takes us far from here
To see its silver mirror
Don’t let that visitor steer

Now that time has passed
The world still longs to ask
Do you know your lonely task?
We can answer to the mask

River

I walk beside the river
The place I lived before
Today I feel the water
It’s like opening a door

I see my lonely footsteps
As my dog just follows me
Attachment is a human thing
That may never let us be

I love the place I walk on
But I miss the home I knew
These feelings are so precious
They guide me in what to do

I hear the river flowing
As I smell the winter rye
And taste the living wind
Still I dream to touch the sky

I want to be a worthy man
Live courageously and bold
So now I walk beside my dog
And let us both grow old

Waves

Waves - Big, Broad, Bold and Broken
Coming from that invisible horizon
This boat is taking me into the storm
What disturbance is stirring the water?
Is it wind or emotional pain that seeks me?
Here, where I stand on the rich soil of life
I will calm the waves and give them peace
As they pass through me and over me
My soul is not blown by the wind
My soul is not bent by the waves
I resisted those forces before and was hurt
Now, I feel them pass where I stand
Worthy to greet tomorrow’s sunrise

Blessings

Remove your comforts
As if your clothing
Find your blessings
Far beyond your body
Where only souls wander
True blessings serve us
Beyond the place we walk
Shining bright forever
Lasting long as gold

Written In Water

Life has brought me here
To a place I never imagined
And it is pulling at my heart
Standing in this river of pain
Seeking the moment’s truth
And a doorway to freedom
The handle turns with love

Horses

Change is a horse we ride through life
Hands resting beside its reins of strife
Becoming the present place we stand
Or riding free through changing land
On a way to a place we mean to stay
On a horse that never dreams of hay
Join us when we celebrate each day
When change leaves us to go our way

Cold and Clear

Winter weather is fast asleep
Dreaming springtime colored sheep
Living paint spread thick on land
Under Spring’s invisible hand
That renders blue above gray sand

White birds stop before they freeze
They journeyed here with hopes to feed
And choose a mate with whom to breed
Then fledge their young to fly past trees
Come fall they'll fly to southern seas

Present

Waiting for my time
Not just any time
It avoids arriving
While I am striving
For the next rung
On a wooden ladder

The ladder points
At Heaven’s door
Now closed against
The light and more
Of its sacred secrets

Heaven waits
To celebrate me
When I arrive
Past sixty three
Reading ancient poetry

Letting go of my body
May be the hard part
Passing by the door
May be much easier
Than anything else
I have done before

I have felt heaven here
Shining brightly through
Every present moment
I have shared with you
In every instant I wake
There is no wish to wait

Disturbance

Black ducks fly high
Across the grey sky
In a ball not a V
The air is disturbed
By fast slicing flight
Just for the moment
They pass my sight
Then stillness returns
To a winter slumber
Under the grey sky
Those ducks flew by

Heartfelt

A heart can circle in life
Like an eagle that soars
Over good land and bad
Judgment colors our life
Circling high above land
Attaching us to life
By more than gravity
Floating in a silent breeze
Hot breath breathed by life
Freeing us from gravity
And judgment of this life

Chum Salmon

                                                                                          Sunshine Coast, BC

Chum Salmon
Found the waiting river
Beside our empty park
Near the green forest
By the farmhouse farm
There is where we like to go
To rest in nature's music
It never seems to change
Surprising us again
Chum Salmon Spawning
Splashing urgently
In the flowing river
Touching our souls
Shivering our life
Paired and unquestioning
They dig and spawn and die
Powerfully like the river flows
Their bodies given to life’s force
Digging in the gravel
As it needs to be done
Pairing and spawning
So brief but so right
And dying with honour
Giving Borrowed Bodies Back
To the Land they Love

Big leaf Maples

                                                                         Google Images

I watched a gentle breeze begin
So autumn leaves could fall again
Green and yellow and red or brown
Big maple leaves are falling down
Some are catching on the trees
Some are rolling in the breeze
They are the largest leaves around
And make a crunch when they fall down
That is the loudest sound around
Way out here on the edge of town

Falling all the way to the ground
Leaves circle slowly rotating down
Some of them, crinkled and brown
Hang in cedars that live straight down
Some don't fly they plummet instead
Brown and stranded, dry and dead
Some stick inside my neighbor's hedge
Or land on top of grass instead
To move again when the breeze is seen
Or dance with feeling across the green

White Geese

 
                                                                                 Google Images

I hear white geese call as they fly
Fog in trees feels them wash by
White feathers lift warm bodies high
Into broad V's that sprawl the sky
Geese fly unblinking above fall rye

Black crows breathe grey mist to air
And hide white geese beyond my stare
Deep blue sky must still be there
Beyond damp fog and the silent air

While ancient stones may draw a sigh
Geese come and go over crops of rye
And fade to grey in the foggy sky

Habits

                                                                                                   Google Images
Habits form over time
Rooting deep into ritual
Their bent corners stick
Into the mud of our life
Only the strongest wind
Can blow these habits
In to our creative realm
Where action has meaning
And life breathes new air

Fog

                                                                                 Google Image

Fog wanders in and then warms off
Moving almost like the ocean’s tide
Rolling silently and ever so steadily
It is found sleeping on fall mornings
And visits where garden spiders spin
Marking landscapes with silver webs
I thought that spiders built their nets
For the last flying insects of summer
Their webs hardly ever catch insects
During autumn’s damp and cool time
I wonder if spiders seek water instead
Just before their winter sleep arrives
Fog’s mist can pass through any hole
But not through perfectly made webs
These webs can catch the autumn mist
Better than they will hold an insect
During this misty time of the year
Little diamonds of perfect water
Distilled from autumns moist air
On silver strands of golden sun
Do spiders use this water of change
In warm cocoons of endless sleep
To cushion the change that captures
Winter spiders in a mortal web of time
Where stillness can hide the truth
Spun into the evolutionary cloth
Of the blind ever-seeking future
Until life finds its own passion
And caries the spider with it

Eternity

 
                                                                                                Google Images

The early morning light
Chased away the night
Cloud windows all blue
Let the sun shine through
To ride ripples on water
Distorting distant worlds
Trapping all of its colors
Reflected by our mind
Light and shadow laughing
Under the drag of breeze
Dividing a solid world
Into a changing mosaic
As colored leaves let go
Circling down to land
Some resting on the sand
Each leaf adds its beauty
Flying and landing
Each reminding me
Birth knows no meaning
As death folds its hand
And the present moment
Expands to fill the land

Morning Dew

                                                                         Google Images

Dew loves the autumn
It wakes every morning
After the night passes
Beyond its purple clouds
And bright colored stars
Watching our moon sail
Silently across the sky
Wet dew waits for me
To rise breathing mist
Into the morning stillness
And leave a dark wet trail
Of my wandering footprints
Across the sleeping grass
Before disappearing forever
Into the warming day

Wind Blown Rain

                                                                                                Google Images
I did yard work yesterday while it was sunny
Then it rained early morning and the wind blew
Fall leaf colors sailed everywhere all around me
When the wind stopped the rain suddenly died
I noticed summer flowers still in the garden
And green summer leaves still on their trees
Summer was poking fall to see if it would wake
But the sun had not weakened the leaf stems yet
At least not enough for them to fall into autumn
Some landed on my car and some on the ground
So I blew them around until I couldn’t see them
They are probably snagged under garden bushes
That was the best I could do with the time I had

Autumn Fog

                                                                               Google Images
Fog drapes obscure the morning
It folded in sometime last night
Dragging heavy without a breath
Over-top a silent star-less ocean
Calm and quiet entwined forever
Neither wants to raise the other
Both listen for autumn’s owner
Dressed up in warm rich colors
Now standing at our back door
Striking the season’s silent bell

Blackberry

                                                                                  Google Image
Today, I walked along the river
Beside the Blackberry bushes
I plucked from all last summer
Berries that held my eye then
Shrink as they are traded for fall
Or left in place to feed the insects
Garden spiders craft morning webs
Above the yellowing summer canes
Stringing their autumn webs tight
between the bare branches of trees

Cottonwood, Alder and Willows
Grow silent along the riverbank
Contemplating their past summer
Or pondering fall’s coming color
While fat spiders spin silver webs
Perfect love for the morning sun
Rising behind fog over Blue River
Where each berry ripened its life
And held its story within its taste

The morning birds sang free
As they ran beside the river
Stop looking so you can see
Stop seeking so you can feel
And the world opened itself

As I walked along the river
I saw everything that was
The water making the river
Was unique – small particles
  Never to be together again
  Laughed with its bright joy
Trusting the river forever
To turn back toward life
  As fall colors float away

Clear Water

                                                                          Google Images
Winter water with waves
In constantly clear seas
Show fish and some birds
Swimming and flying
To places we can’t go
Except in our dreams
Or with heaps of help
A mask, snorkel and fins
And if the water’s cold
We need a special suit
To follow the fishes
In our awkward way
So it is better to stand
At the edge of the cliff
Looking down into water
To watch birds and fish
Looking for their food
In a clear winter sea
Than it is to chase them
To places we can’t feed

Talking

                                                                             Google Images

I don’t talk to myself much anymore
Sometimes I whistle, sometimes I hum
But I hardly ever mutter words to myself
I don’t trust words alone with my memories
They just always seem to form silly questions
Most voices I could offer immediate answers to
But some questions I needed to think about first
My answers have proven themselves over time
As the simple lucky echoes of my own past life
Life lived early was bright with lasting surprise
Like arrow heads forgotten on a dry earth floor
Left by family and friends when I sought shelter
Now I burn in the present but still honor my past
Grateful smiles tie memories to those who I loved
The elders that valued me when I was still young

Animals

                                                                                                   Google Image
Animals walk the land
Animals visit my dreams
They seem very different
Even if they look similar
Animals that walk on land
Are always so independent
Even when they notice me
They choose their own action
I never know their thoughts
When they visit my dreams
They are always intimate
Even when I fear them
They share their intentions
That I always must respect
Even in shallow dreams
I never know them well

Winds of Truth

                                                                                                        Google image

Let all these emotions
Be waves upon the sea
Raised by winds of truth
And sailed into my heart

Just as a bended tree
Is not the wind itself
I am not my emotions
That way I am set free

All of these directions
Are issued from a force
It lights my living path
A sacred breeze bends me

Welcome Guide

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Stay in my human heart
I waited such a long time
For you to live with me
Come knock on my door
At the home I stay today
Where countless busy rats
Are wound as harried cats
But wanting simple things

Smiling at the celebration
And choosing with full joy
For me and gifts for others
Those healed as one again
Bright spun threads of sun
Never fade while stretching
Any distance that is needed
During the day or the night
In our youth or our old-age
Through danger with safety

Each colored thread of life
Warms us past our feelings
And can live in every heart

Dusty Dry

                                                                                           Google Images

Dusty slow wind
Trigger finger tight
To noise behind ears
So dirt disappears
But sun does too

Over the hillside
Out of my sight
Is a summer party
I can hear it
But cannot see it

So I listen for sound
Do they know it is me
Making the noise
Raising this dust
Into the wind

Rock

                                                                                              Google Images
A rock knows not time
Bonded strong together
Forever as a mountain
Until a moment appears
When separation snaps
Sighing down a soil line
Dividing up a rock face
Underneath grass growing
Silent in sun and gravity
Pushing without knowing
Breaking the rock apart
Setting us all free again
To search for what we wanted
Forever for our soul

Chance

                                                                                Frank Chance   -   Google Image

Letting go - greeting risk
Still seeing far beyond
To free a flightless soul
To run or to stay today
Answering each heart
With certainty and love
Called forever real by all
Calmed by breeze of trust
And played by faceless hands
Beyond life's changing veil
What lives beyond these legs?
Past this velvet poker board

Summer Wind

                                                                                                  Google Images
The wind is always such a big presence
Even though it isn’t always around us
When it is, it easily colors our world
With the broad brush of its personality
Sometimes it is dry, warm and inviting
Proving playful through its leafy rustle
As it turns the underside of each leaf up
On a cottonwood tree at the same time
  To change each living tree's summer dress
From a bluish-green to a yellowish-white
Threatening rain but promising mischief
When the same wind visits here in winter
It howls hollow through cottonwood trees
Bare branches brown and brittle over-head
Those winter winds often chase snow or rain
Through a dark and leafless winter landscape
Wind can tear off tarnished autumn leaves
Or rapidly chatter spring’s new leafy growth
And a busy wind can always find its place
Inside every season’s melody as it plays

Heron

                                                                                Google Images


I wonder what you called me
When you saw me watching you
There, where you were wading
Hunting for the fish that swam
  Unsuspecting the grip of your bill

But I watch a heron every day
Fishing on the river by my work
Every day it wades to catch fish
But only when tides are just right
So the water is shallow and fish linger
That heron knows I am there
But it hardly matters by now
He is the only predator around
I am just a bystander, watching
As that heron hunts for its fish

But here in the wilderness I hide
As you fumble half-minded in your task
Surviving on the fish you catch
While you avoid entangling my shadow
As it brings a certain threat to you
But I want neither you nor your fish
As you draw down your large wings
And pull two scaly feet from the mud
Up into the blue shadow of your wings
And seek another place to fish

Alder Trees

                                                                  Google Image
Alder trees found their place
At the margin of the forest
In front of the grand firs
Above the sword ferns
That circle the trunks
And hide round rocks
Rolled or lifted aside
From an old dirt trail
That follows the forest edge
Beyond the comfortable space
Where I learned that I belong

Tent Caterpillar

                                                                                               Google Images

Where did you come from?


Silky weaves high in tall trees
Caterpillars devour their platforms
So leafy skeletons of fallen leaves
Can litter dry ground around trees
That needed them for something

Carnage of awkwardly bent bugs
Caterpillar ends severed by birds
Strewn randomly across the path
All Shouting that life is not casual
Whether it flies, crawls or stands

Life’s beauty is not measured by time
It burns bright in the crawling insect
Just as surely as it does in flying birds
And in the young stand of Alder trees
I watch them all through my own window


And where will you go from here?

Time

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Time wills to chase us through life
Pushing here and then waiting there
Wishing and longing at the bottom
Forgiving and laughing at the top
Often drawing us away from others
I have dissolved into others before
But never forgot my efforts to please
Folding myself into mothers and brothers
Two melting pots of love and longing
Flickering butterflies of their own passions
Flashing here and there to their own flowers
Until I didn’t notice them any more
All that was left in bloom was me
And the rest didn’t matter anymore
Because my vessel has always carried
Inside of it, all the love I can ever feel

Sunset

                                                                                    Google Images
Sometimes life feels like the sun’s light
Bright warmth finding us from the outside
Yet it only shines on us for a short while
Before the night holds us in its arms again
Offering a view of the stars and the moon
Things left behind, unseen in the day's light
Sun's promise to return quenched by color
Drunk into soft darkness by a thirsty sea
As we watch satisfied by life’s sweetness
So alive in that exciting precious moment
That seems to sit still until we look away
Then retrieve it again and again and again
Until we remember the one who is beside us
Watching the same sun set in their own way
Feeling important to time and love and life
Before night stars whisper into our dreams

Stick

                                                                                        Google Image
Today has always been a cloudy, rainy day
It has been since I woke to disagreeing birds
Scolding an owl perched in a tree near their nest
I heard the crows first then finally the owl called
My day has been the same – silent predators sighted
Waiting for money or other things that I don't have
I did all that I could then brought myself to the river
Immediately, I thought I needed to see a fish jump
Over there in quiet water so I could be sure I saw it
I watched red bodies glisten above muddy water before
I have seen it but not today when I thought I needed to
That is nature’s way – to serve its own master - not me
But a smooth wet stick floated expertly on the river
It went right by me, turning and rolling in the current
I watched and lost myself - more than if a fish had jumped
That is nature’s way – offering unpredictable richness
In its own, ever-changing and always present moment

Spider Lake

                                                                                          Google Image
Water on the dark pond is still right now
And I do not look away when I see into it
I am detached - unafraid to see the bottom
The sunken trees, soft mud and rusty cables
That line the edge of the lake look dangerous
Lying there silently they tangle fearful minds
Awakening fear through our obscured blindness
Stealing swimmers breath by unforgiving touch
Hiding there forever under the rippling breeze
Of changing times, forever jealous of our life
As they listen to the bark of finning fish sing
And feel the empty tickle of leaches landing
While snails trail across slippery green algae
That slowly replaces a branch’s brown bark
As it falls away in slow-motion from a tree
Landing alone on the lake’s muddy bottom

Confusion

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I wish it wasn’t this way
Lost inside of life’s confusion
Never leaning the other way
Yes, I learned to be human
And that was no simple task
But I must have learned well
As my dog follows me closely
Never once have I left him behind
And I only feel love for his being
Sometimes more than for mine
Even when I don't understand him

Music

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Listening to Latin music
Falling asleep in sweet perfection
Waiting for the weather to change
Hearing the voice of springtime birds
And satisfied with summer clouds
That run ahead of their season
Unconcerned about their world below
But I think and dream of them now
Cotton batting high up in blue sky
Aware of me like a proud parent
One who walked loyally behind me
still visible and silent but high above
Still steering away rocks that threaten
And helping fight strangers that challenge

One Life Forever

                                                                                                  Google Images
A handsome baby boy
Was born into the land
  Standing tall and strong
As he grew into a man
He kissed a pretty girl
And joined her gentle soul

They made a baby girl
Before he went to war
Shot among his friends
He died in soldier hands
He was carried to a plane
And taken to his land

Still before his wife
  Lay a tattered flag of strife
Grieving through the flag
She missed him with her heart
So buried him in ground
  Spring flowers all around

The pretty girl grew up
While daddy wasn’t there
She loved her mommy so
And shared her golden hair
She never knew her dad
His absence very sad

Change

                                                                                       change is good Yahoo
I so seldom look for change
And I never embrace darkness
But running away forced change
While reaching beyond my balance
Before the burn of longing left
Uncovering my biggest prizes
The ones that I remember best
The ones that I carried longest
Places that grew comfortable
As I watched dreams fade dim
Now I walk fear burning bright
Deep in my heart beside love
While we approach a future
That neither of us can know
But will wait for us forever
The precious moment of now

Clouds

                                                                                            Yahoo Images
Come to the clouds with me
Do you remember them at all?
Walk with me among them
Then float with them yourself
We will know you are there
In your sky of authenticity
We will still see you there
When you cannot see yourself
And we will share that joy
Right across our lifetime sky
As it finds us for a moment
Or for days and then forever
Each and every one of us

Fullness

                                                                                               Yahoo Image

Did you find it waiting?
Was it resting in plain view?
Or was it hidden in a shadow?
Did you take a risk to reach it?
Or does it still wait in silence?
Know it is the time to move on
When you cannot remember
Where you have come from
Or where you dream to go
In this mystery of your life
that belongs to you alone