This collection of 100 poems by Don Hynes resonate with the rhythms of crashing waves and towering forests from the heart of the Pacific Northwest. Hynes explores the rugged beauty of trees, rocks, and rolling waves through an intimately personal lens.
More than nature poetry, these are soul poems – borne of memory, heartache, and dream visions. They reach transcendentally across time and space to connect with the reader’s own experiences of change and self-discovery.
Poems that reach into lifetimes – past, present and those to be imagined, and in the tradition of America’s most enlightened poets such as Mary Oliver and William Stafford, speak in a quiet voice of your place on earth and the place you are preparing.
As the sun begins its slow trek north, I stir within my old retreat in the dark cave of forgiveness. Buried shadows of guilt burn on the kindled fire, claws of shame curl to smoke, as I dance to earth’s heartbeat, sweeping debris from the graves of my ancestors.
Fallen like a broad maple, I lie stretched on wet ground, giving my life to bleak autumn cold. Sinking into dark earth among the vanquished, I linger in the underworld for a signal to rise, yearning for the touch that shaped me imperfect, to walk once more among the enlightened,
Clouds cover the valley as dawn light breaks. The gift of life arrives once more – to poor and rich, faithful and faithless, clothed as a child in winter dark with starlight shining.
